Selling the Democratic populist message...

Brand new and just what the Democratic Party needs to fine tune their message; The Progress Points Message Blog.

An offshoot of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, PPM tries to simplify and counter logically the upside down right wing thinking that renders meaningless the words “freedom” and “liberty.”

Their first topic tries to reframe the way people think about the private sector. For me, “private” means we rarely hear about the massive failures and mismanagement that comes with a market system that sees lots of winners and losers.

Government can’t hide the failures and mismanagement, and that’s a good thing. Unlike the private sector, we can change government, and make it work better for us. And no, we're not "always looking for a government solution to everything," the false premise posed by conservatives. Liberals have never made that ridiculous claim. 

Here’s their take:

(We) will take a quick look at how to build public opposition to privatization. Although it is obvious to progressive activists that these schemes will lead to higher cost, lower quality services, and less public accountability, messaging this issue is very tricky in the current public environment.

Topos Partners have done valuable opinion research:

First, there is not a clear distinction for most Americans between public and private … Second, because of the success of conservative propaganda most Americans assume government is wasteful and inefficient … Third, business is seen as effective, efficient, and innovative … you need to shift the frame.

The best approach … is to shift the frame from efficiency to control … the risk of handing over control of vital public services to private business … if the private company starts running the operation into the ground, or charging exorbitant fees, we have very little say. When the public is in control, it can demand that operations be open to public review, accountable to the people, and run in the public interest.

Businesses looking to take over public services are outside entities which “we” can’t control … This “control” frame has to be adapted to each instance of privatization.  

I've added The Progress Points Message Blog to my Wisconsin Blog roll, so you can keep an eye on it.