Messaging Examples

The materials linked here use our values in messages, in various formats (although they could be adapted to any format).

We could select only part of any of the longer examples and build a more focused message (use fewer values but say more about them), or simply use a part for a shorter message.

There are also some examples of what NOT to do -- useless, tone-deaf, or counterproductive messages!

  1. Handout materials (MS Word documents have space to insert county party information)
    1. Freedom-Opportunity-Security brochure (MS Word)
    2. Half-page card (MS Word)
    3. Half-page card (MS Publisher)
    4. An Economy That Works for All Adobe PDF icon
    5. College Tuition Affordable Adobe PDF icon
    6. How will climate change affect your future? Adobe PDF icon
    7. Democratic agenda card (Word copy; design at Vistaprint is 3-3/4" x 8-1/4", back is blank [note 6]. Design by Bette Holland, Dawson County.)
  2. Handout materials from David Vogel (12/12/2015)
     
  3. Ad, 2-column Adobe PDF icon
     
  4. From "Voicing Our Values": "How to Talk About" specific issues [note 1] : Words to use—and NOT to use (corrected 5/9/2020)

  5. Messaging Ideas (from Opportunity Agenda). Messaging on specific issues begins on "page 34 of 52" labeled "38".
     
  6. "Framing for Specific Issues: Freedom Issues" [note 2] in Part III, Ch. 7, The All New Don't Think of an Elephant, by George Lakoff, 2014 ed.
     
  7. "A Phrasebook for Democrats," Part IV in The Little Blue Book: The Essential Guide to Thinking and Talking Democratic, by George Lakoff and Elisabeth Wehling (2012)
     
  8. From Wellstone: "The Stump Speech: How-To and Worksheet" ("The candidate's stump speech is the campaign's core vehicle for delivering a concise, clear, and compelling message and story about the candidate and campaign....")
     
  9. County Democratic websites highlighting values:
    1. Dawson County
    2. Hall County (Updated 5/9/2020)
  10. Attached is a statement to be used in part or all in response [from the local Democratic Party] to the Republican mantra being chanted in our local media [Gainesville, Hall County]. Reassessments, long over due, will increase taxes for some. County commission and board of education need the revenues, but Tea Party tax cutters want the millage cut, calling it a tax increase. As the article [in the local paper] points out, not everyone will see a tax increase.

         "Our taxing system should be fair and provide the opportunity for our local citizens to access quality public education, feel safe, and pursue economic security in our community.
         "A budget is a plan for our future. It’s about what we need to invest today in order to build a better tomorrow. Our taxing system should provide a solid public safety system, clean air and clean water, and the security of a community with a good quality of life.
         "Starting out with a basic policy to cut taxes is irresponsible. This simplistic approach ignores careful study of our community and what we need to grow and remain the place where we all want to live. That philosophy threatens to destroy our public education system and erodes our transportation trade routes. And those two crumbling building blocks undermine our local businesses and the economic security of our community."

  11. "Across the country, conservatives in statehouses and in their home districts are spreading anti-science, anti-women, anti-family, anti-middle class policies, and we are proud of the work progressives are doing to stand up to them."
     
    The above statement in a progressivemajority.org email clearly says that right-wingers are opposed to (are "anti-" or negative about) all the things that normal people value—science, women, family, middle class policies. It's a way to talk about the opposition without negating and thus reinforcing their framing.
     
  12. An organization proposing to overturn the Citizens United U.S. Supreme Court decision offered the following bumper sticker to its supporters:
     
    Corporations are NOT People - bumper sticker
         Our response: "The findings, over decades, of cognitive science tell us that negating a conservative frame only reinforces the frame. (See especially George Lakoff.) Specifically, although the bumper sticker says 'Corporations are NOT people,' what happens over time in people's brains is that the 'NOT' fades and what's left in their neural pathways is 'Corporations are...people'—exactly the right-wing framing that we're trying to overcome.
         "This bumper sticker no doubt make those of us already opposed to the noxious idea that corporations should enjoy individual rights feel good—fighting back, sort of—but it reinforces the opposition rather than reaching the people who can grow our ranks. We need something POSITIVE about reserving human rights to...humans, not a repeat of conservative framing."
     
  13. Progressive activists know that "Citizens United" is the U.S. Supreme Court case that released the flood of corporate money into our political process—but it's another insider term. To citizens who are NOT plugged into politics, the phrase "citizens united" probably sounds like a good thing! Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi's web site offers this bumper sticker:
     
    Reverse Citizens United bumper sticker
     
    Unfortunately, while it identifies activists to each other, uninvolved citizens (the "independents" who we want to reach) are likely to scratch their heads about this "meaningless" (to them) bumper sticker. Corporate money in politics, however, is widely recognized as giving at least the appearance of corruption. [Note 5] Everyone understands "money," and that is what our messaging should be about. [Note 4] To the extent that bumper stickers attract attention and might convey a message that would "stick," we should not waste the opportunity.
     
  14. Attached (and included below) is the DSCC's list of "finalists" in their bumper sticker contest. There are reasons that we've talked about why none of these will be effective with anyone except other already-committed Democrats.
     
    Comments:
    1. "Citizens United" is an insider term. We should talk about "money in politics," especially the "flood of money" or "billionaire money," etc.
    2. "Paint the Senate BLUE" doesn't mention Democrats (although "blue" means Democrats to the politically aware!).
    3. "Fewer Elephants" doesn't immediately read as a political message. The common phrase "the elephant in the room" has nothing to do with politics.
    4. "Special interests" is too general. In fact, the Republicans proclaim that many of our constituent groups are "special interests" (African-Americans, LGBT people, feminists, environmentalists, etc.), so this phrase, undefined, might play into Republican framing.
    5. "GOPuh-leeze" is vague. What does it mean?
    6. "Do Right, Vote Left" is clever, but to persuadables, it says "Just politics" (ideology versus meaningful issues). Democrats don't normally refer to ourselves as "leftists," although the Republicans refer to us that way.

    DSCC bumper stickers proposed


 Notes:

 1.  Civil Rights & Liberties, Consumer Protection, Education, Environment & Smart Growth, Government Performance, Health, Public Safety, Reproductive Rights, Social Services, Taxation, Voting & Elections, Wages & Benefits

2.  Health care; education; poverty; discrimination: race, gender, and sexual orientation; unions and pensions; immigration.

3.  From The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition (1985): "principle n. 1. A basic truth, law, or assumption: the principles of democracy. 2.a. A rule or standard, esp. of good behavior: a man of principle. b. Moral or ethical standards of judgments collectively: a decision based on principle rather than expediency…."

4.  Our concern is not "wealth" out of context but whether it's taken unfairly from others and whether it's used to corrupt democracy. The Right constantly attempts to redefine wealth regardless of context as a sign of virtue, of the reward from "Providence" for righeousness. (Consequently, the Right opposes progressive taxation.)

5.  In the Citizens United case, the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority said that "because these funds were not being spent in coordination with a campaign, they 'do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.'"

6.  Back is customizeable. Each county could get package labels and print their county information on it.