excellent post Eriposte.

Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about!! (~: AWESOME! I was waiting for some stuff like this from you. As disturbing as it is... LOL!!

I wonder if there's any way that we can get Dr. Dean's take on this. It seems to be in line with his vision of the future of party, or, at least that's the impression I get.

GREAT post eriposte! Keep up the good work!

Another possible way to use the Microsoft example - Microsoft designs the operating system to support their applications and their OS includes sales materials for their applications. At the same time their applications require their operating system. By working together like that, they reinforce each other and expand the market for each.

If Progressives all worked to "sell" the underlying Progressive values to the broad, general American public, then each of the narrower issues would be supported to a greater extent than now. For example, a Progressive voter is an environmental voter. A Progressive voter supports consumer protections. A Progressive voter wants national health insurance. A Progressive voter demands a strong Social Security system.

And, most important, a Progressive voter elects candidates who will vote to support each of these interests.

But when environmental groups speak only to environmentalists and only about narrower environmental issues, they sacrifice the possibility of converting so many regular people to their side.

The Right knows these things. ALL of the Right's organizations talk about "free markets" and reach out to the general public-at-large, and only talk about their own narrower issues in the context of the larger overall framework that all of the Right's organizations share.

So Progressive organizations would do better to combine their efforts into a single, unified voice, reaching out to ALL of America, explaining why Progressive values of democracy and community and sustainability are superior values -- benefitting people more than selfish right-wing values.

I apologize for all the trackback pings. I don't know how to get Movable Type to stop sending out a trackback every time I fix a spelling error in a post, etc.