There’s no denying that the idea of telling an American story, of invoking values, is something that progressives have had real trouble with and sometimes even rejected outright. What good is telling a story when we’re fighting to defeat a ballot measure or win community benefits on a new development project? Why talk about values when it seems they only ever get mentioned when someone’s telling us that we don’t have them? Whose American story are we talking about? Why tell American stories anyway?
For three simple reasons: the power of narrative; the nature of our democracy; and because the Progressive Story is the American Story.
The Power of Narrative.
As Andy Goodman explains in his excellent publication Storytelling as Best Practice: “No one ever marched on Washington because of a pie chart.” Storytelling is one of the oldest human activities, and as children we first begin to make sense of the world by constructing narratives. Later we may adopt more sophisticated tools to describe our existence: the scientific method, applied statistics and regression analysis, for example. Even still, it is stories that lend meaning to the world around us. All the deep thinking and sound research that underly our analysis of our issues is incredibly important, but it’s not enough to change someone’s mind: For that, we need a story with a clear moral—the simpler the better—and one filled with values to which they can relate, and which they understand implicitly, perhaps without even knowing why.
The Nature of Democracy.
At the risk of sounding like a civics textbook, political and social change in a democracy relies on convincing more than half of our fellow citizens that we are in the right and our opponents are in the wrong, and getting them to vote accordingly. It is also true that this ideal democracy exists only in the pages of civics textbooks, of course. In the real world, a strongly held minority view or the power of entrenched elites can act as powerful barriers to the will of the majority. Even still, broad support for the issues progressives care about from beyond the base makes overcoming those barriers easier. While the affirmation that comes from only talking to people who agree with us might feel good, its often not enough to achieve our goals. To reach audiences who don’t understand and support the causes we’re fighting for, we need to appeal to those things that connect us at a deep level: our shared values.
The Progressive Story.
It might be difficult today to recognize it, but this country was founded on radically progressive ideas about the perfectibility of human kind, inalienable liberties, and the right of self-government. These ideas were at the core of an Enlightenment movement that was deeply disturbing to the conservative power structure of that era. This isn’t the whole story of the American Revolution, of course—the founders’ understanding of who was entitled to the rights for which they were fighting was tragically limited—yet time and again throughout our history, people have fought for, and won, those rights by appealing to the founding principles of the country. From the women’s suffrage movement at the turn of the last century to the civil rights movement in the 1960s to the gay and lesbian rights movement of the 1970s and 1980s, the American story has been one of progressively extending our understanding of who is entitled to the rights that the Revolution was fought to secure. In this view, the millions of immigrants who took to the streets during the spring of 2006 are but the latest groups to stand up and demand they be included in the society they have helped to build. This story has been going on for more than two hundred years now, and I see no reason to believe it is in danger of ending any time soon.
A More Perfect Union.
None of this is to say that America is perfect, of course. As a nation, we have been guilty of immense wrongs, from the “original sin” of slavery and the genocidal warfare waged on Native Americans and the to the rendition and torture of suspected terrorists and worse. It is important to remember that when we’re speaking of values and story-telling, perception is at least as important as objective reality, and many Americans believe their history to be a story of progress, of overcoming obstacles through generosity of spirit, community, and hard work. Any effective communications effort must, at the very least, understand how these perceptions will affect the way our messages are received.
Even if you choose not to use any of the recommendations laid out here in your communications work, it is imperative that you understand how these values operate. Your political opponents have been using them for years, to paint their views in a favorable light, and to tear down yours. In order to do so, they have twisted to common meaning of words, and engaged in all manner of doublespeak. Knowing how they’re doing it can at least let you plan an effective defense.
Understanding the progressive elements of the nation’s founding principles—and their connection with our deepest aspirations for our society—creates a powerful base on which to build our communications work. Quite simply, it is our responsibility, as communicators for change to articulate the values we hold dear, and to fight for the change those values demand, as we continue the struggle “to form a more perfect union.” This struggle is about winning more than the passage of a ballot measure, or even about winning rights for our community. As Ella Baker once said to her young charges in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, “Remember, we are not fighting for the freedom of the Negro alone, but for the freedom of the human spirit, a larger freedom that encompasses all mankind.” Next Section>>