A majority of Americans had rejected our sense
of ethical righteousness, the notion that ours was the path of moral values,
and they had voted instead for someone who stood against nearly everything
in which we believed. Polls told us we had lost a battle of faith and
morality, but we did not know why. One thing was clear. Our old methods,
the strategies that had won us many battles in the past, were no longer
sufficient to help us get our message into the public dialogue. We had
been out-spoken, out-maneuvered, and out-foxed. Over the past three decades,
the Right has adopted a powerful strategy for taking over the political
systems of this country. Their success has largely resulted from their
utilization of a set of ingenious institutional techniques - primarily,
a strategic framing of their message coupled with the construction of
a holistic meta-structure for delivering it - rather than their engagement
in democratic discourse over the true content of their policies. Our movement
can learn something by studying the methods that have allowed the Right
to become so powerful, and if we are smart, we will figure out how to
apply these lessons to our own national aspirations.
This website is the home of a paper written
during the Spring 2005 semester by Jeni Krencicki and Dahvi Wilson, two
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies graduate students. It
is intended to spark debate within the environmental community and provide
an initial roadmap for progressive leaders looking to learn from the successful
strategies of the Right.
Please send comments directly to info@progressivesynergy.org.
Or post a comment on our Lessons From The Right Blog.
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