Progressive Strategy Handbook

So you want to be part of a real progressive movement? You’ve come to the right place.

We’re tired of sitting idly by hoping that our elected officials will set a bold and visionary agenda for progressive change. We know that our political system is fundamentally broken and that swapping out one corporate-sponsored politician for another is only going to preserve, if not strengthen, the status quo.

And we’re tired of waiting for wealthy progressives to get the message that they need to fund a movement, not just another election cycle. Since they have shown an inability to put money into progressive infrastructure for the long haul, we’re going to have to do it ourselves. And with the power of social media tools, we believe it is now possible for us to come together and do this.

Let’s start with a few questions we hear a lot:

* Why haven’t the Democrats taken George Lakoff’s advice and employed progressive frames to shift public debate?
* When are we going to see major investments in progressive infrastructure?
* Why are progressives still so divided by issue silos?
* When will there be a concerted response to the conservative propaganda machine?

After years of asking these questions ourselves, we’ve grown tired of waiting for someone else to provide an answer. So we’re doing something radical: We’re bypassing the elites, going straight to the crowd, and getting down to work.

This is the central theme of the strategy handbook you hold in your hands. The following pages lay out a vision for building the progressive movement based on a new paradigm for digital organizing in the internet age. The core idea behind this endeavor is this:

The lifeblood of 21st Century democracy will be EMPOWERED INTERACTIVITY!

What we need now is an engagement model that is participatory and transparent. We need a movement that empowers everyday citizens to mobilize and pull our country forward in the new millennium. And we need the tools and ideas, plus the will and the funding, to enable everyday citizens to engage in empowered interactivity.

That is the strategy for a 21st Century progressive movement.