Language for a Change

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The flip side of unpunished wrongdoing by big shots is unrewarded contributions and responsibility by regular people. When Bill Clinton talked about people 'who work hard and play by the rules,' he appealed to the widely held belief that people who hold down jobs, pay their taxes, live within the law, and do right by their community are not getting the respect and rewards they have earned. That's why slogans like 'Make work pay' win wide support for living-wage ordinances, union organizing drives, and programs that help people move from welfare to employment.

The caring community

Americans devoutly believe in helping each other and sharing life's benefits and burdens. For all our individualism, we know we can't make it without a community behind us. In difficult times, such as the post-9/11 world, Americans want everyone to contribute, especially those with the most advantages. Progressives can use rhetorical jujitsu against President Bush: If our nation really is besieged, then how can we justify new benefits for the wealthy and new burdens on the rest of us?

The people rising

Our nation's primal story is the American Revolution: citizens standing up, peaceably at first, to demand the right to govern themselves. From the Proposition 13 tax rebellion of the 1970s to the current property rights movement and the recent recall election in California, conservatives have presented themselves as modern-day Minutemen. But progressives were equally successful evoking America's insurgent past during the '60s and '70s with the civil rights movement, the women's movement, and the peace movement. All successful movements, whether of the left, right, or center, cast their causes as something larger than the redress of specific grievances.

Speaking everyday language, appealing to common values, and developing populist parables -- that's how progressives can communicate to our fellow citizens, not just with each other, and persuade all Americans to follow their best instincts and further their best interests.

David Kusnet was chief speechwriter for President Bill Clinton from 1992 through 1994. He is currently a visiting fellow at the Economic Policy Institute and is author of Speaking American: How the Democrats Can Win in the Nineties (Thunder's Mouth, 1992). From the progressive biweekly In These Times (Nov. 17, 2003). Subscriptions: $36.95/yr. (52 issues) from 2040 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60647.

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