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Creating Progressive Infrastructure
The American conservative movement has succeeded in moving public attitudes steadily rightward over the last 30 years, with far-reaching consequences for the country’s governance. This success has been achieved through a well-funded and well-coordinated political infrastructure that follows a long-term, disciplined communications strategy. With increasing knowledge about the conservative infrastructure and its impact on politics and policy has come a realization that moderates and progressives need to develop an effective infrastructure of their own.
The Commonweal Institute was established with the intention of having it serve as one of the components of a progressive infrastructure. We address the need for creating progressive infrastructure and offer suggestions for achieving that goal.
- Commonweal Institute's collection of
articles and reports focusing on development of Progressive infrastructure organizations.
- “Understanding Progressive Infrastructure” (PDF – 131K),
by Katherine A. Forrest, MD.,
outlines the functions performed by political infrastructure and the benefits that can result. It also presents an overview of the progress that has been made thus far toward creating progressive infrastructure and highlights further steps that are needed.
- “The Time to Grow Stronger Is Between Elections” (PDF – 35K),
by Katherine A. Forrest, MD.,
discusses some of the things that grassroots activists can do between campaigns to strengthen their groups and enhance the position of progressives in their communities. These actions, which incorporate marketing concepts, fall into four areas: (1) expanding and diversifying a political group’s membership; (2) strengthening the group’s position and influence in the community; (3) increasing individual activists' knowledge and effectiveness as political players; and (4) learning how to become more effective when talking about politics with others.
- “Creating Progressive Infrastructure Now: An Action Plan for Reclaiming America’s Heart and Soul” (PDF – 75K),
by Leonard M. Salle and Katherine A. Forrest, discusses the nature of political infrastructure, including the basic functions that a progressive infrastructure should fulfill, and suggests specific action steps and funding approaches.
This paper can also be viewed as an online "HTML" web-page.
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