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March 30, 2005
Building the new progressive pyramid
Bill Bradley makes an interesting point:
You've probably heard some of this before, but let me run through it again. Big individual donors and large foundations - the Scaife family and Olin foundations, for instance - form the base of the pyramid. They finance conservative research centers like the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, entities that make up the second level of the pyramid.The ideas these organizations develop are then pushed up to the third level of the pyramid - the political level. There, strategists like Karl Rove or Ralph Reed or Ken Mehlman take these new ideas and, through polling, focus groups and careful attention to Democratic attacks, convert them into language that will appeal to the broadest electorate. That language is sometimes in the form of an assault on Democrats and at other times in the form of advocacy for a new policy position. The development process can take years. And then there's the fourth level of the pyramid: the partisan news media. Conservative commentators and networks spread these finely honed ideas.
At the very top of the pyramid you'll find the president. Because the pyramid is stable, all you have to do is put a different top on it and it works fine.
That looks something like this:
Bush, Cheney
Fox, Limbaugh, Hannity
Rove, Mehlman, Reed, Norquist
Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute
Scaife Family, Coors Family, Olin Foundations
Bradley says we have something like this:
George Soros, Labor Unions, Private Endowments and Trusts
Rockridge Institute, Center for American Progress
James Carville, Bob Shrum, Donna Brazile
Air America, New York Times
Kerry, Edwards
I think we could have this, instead:
Edwards, Clinton
Air America, New York Times
George Lakoff, John Podesta, Donna Brazile
Bloggers, Think Tanks, Policy Centers, Universities
Individual Donors, Large Gifts, Endowments, Labor Unions
Sound good?
Posted by Mike at March 30, 2005 10:34 AM
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