Goal: Promote the benefits of progressive values

Leadership

Organization’s Objective

Because of decades of slanderous attacks by our opponents on the Right, the current brand image of liberalism or progressivism is out of synch with our values. As a consequence, progressives struggle to attract adherents and grow as a movement. This fundamental problem will have ramifications not only for the 2008 election, but also for many years to come.

To date, there have been at least half a dozen major efforts to define a core set of progressive values, an overarching vision for the emerging progressive movement. Most of this work, however, has not achieved much visibility, with even less understanding of how effective these values frameworks are in communicating with the public. On the other side, there are thousands of organizations around the country, focused on single issues, whose goals and beliefs parallel progressive values, but whose constituents too often do not make the connection between their issue activism and broader progressive values. As a result, they are under-represented in the progressive movement. The failure of the thousands of issue-silo organizations and their supporters to connect to a broader framework of progressive values is ultimately a marketing problem, and the Commonweal Institute’s staff of communications experts tackles this challenge.