The Little Blue Book: The Essential Guide to Thinking and Talking Democratic

What we are trying to achieve with this book is a neural alternative that is open to important truths: the central role of the Public in American life, the overwhelming power of corporations in our public life, the predatory nature of privatization, the disastrous reality of humanly caused global warming, and the powerfully negative effect of extre

Democrats need to be talking nonstop about the Public as the necessary foundation of the Private. Undermining, weakening, or eliminating the Public would be a disaster for the Private as well, destroying the sanctity and safety of American private life and the basis of most businesses. Conservatives never mention this fundamental truth of American

One finding of cognitive science is that words have the most powerful effect on our minds when they are simple. The technical term is basic level.11 Basic-level words tend to be short. Basic-level words are the ones children learn most easily, making up our most basic conceptual repertoire. Basic-level words are easily remembered; those messages wi

To sum up: Use your own language; never use your opponent’s language. Be aware of what you believe and repeat it out loud over and over; never repeat ideas that you don’t believe in, even if you are arguing against them. Be positive. Be authentic. Bring it home. Say it simply.

By 2010 Obamacare had become a dirty word, and the most radical Republicans won their elections and took over the House with a promise to repeal it. What the Obama administration missed was the opportunity to argue on the basis of the same moral ideals of freedom and life. Serious illness without health care takes away your liberty and threatens yo

Basic-level words activate imagery in our mind; for example, the basic-level word chair evokes an image of a chair; the more general, or superordinate-level, word furniture does not evoke a specific image. Basic-level words activate motor programs in our brain as part of our speech comprehension; the word cat, for example, evokes motor programs tha

Here is what to say: American democracy is built on the ethic of citizens caring about other citizens. Its moral mission is to protect and empower everyone equally by the provision of public resources. The Public is the foundation for the Private—for decent private lives and for private enterprise that works. No one makes it on his or her own witho

Moral values are primary. They define what the issue areas are and place limits on possible policies. What about abstract ideals such as freedom, justice, fairness, equality, loyalty, accountability, authority, sanctity, and even caring? These are what linguists call contested concepts. They are ideas that appear to have a very simple, generally ag

As an example of superordinate-level and basic-level wording in public discourse, consider the environmental debate. The word environment is an abstract category. There is no one clear image that comes to mind when hearing it; there is no complex motor planning or visual imagery activated. Contrast this with the words forest, soil, water, air, and