Planting Liberally

Before I start, a quick shout-out to Chris Bowers, who has been a leading thinker on the shape and infrastructure of the liberal blogosphere and the liberal movement generally for quite some time now. (Cross-posted to MyDD) A few days ago, GatorDemocrat posted some very forward-looking thoughts about how liberals can close the gap on conservatives in the development and propagation of ideas: the proposal was to build a network of small-scale local progressive think tanks. The DailyKos diary is at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/16/21103/4510, and the MyDD diary is at http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/4/16/21726/8868. There was a lot of good discussion around these ideas, but one key question remains: How do we do it? That's what I intend to explore in this blog post. In the DailyKos comment thread, Free Spirit made an excellent suggestion:

Get some progressives together (some with half a brain would be good), pick 2-3 key local issues to start with, do your homework, write up some backgrounders, reports, position papers or what have you, and give them to local progressive candidates. Once you have something to show for yourselves, you can contact the state think tanks (if they are up and running by then) and tell them what you've been doing...if you want to. If you do, keep in mind that they might not thank you for it. If you are hoping to get paid for doing this, that's another matter entirely.

I think that this comment is right on, although it could use a little fine tuning. Getting Started A large number of local political groups, including DFA coalition groups, Drinking Liberally chapters, Progressive Democrats of America chapters, and others, have started "reading groups" or "discsussion groups" around a topic of general interest. Usually these are very low-key affairs: five or so people will gather once a week and discuss some articles, or discuss the progress of legislation they're tracking in the state house, or suggest good blogs for one another to read. The power of these reading or discussion groups (I'll just call them reading groups from now on) has two sources: one, they are small, tightly-knit groups that meet regularly; and two, just as importantly, they have a narrow, well-defined and agreed-upon focus, such as health care, the environment, etc. These reading groups are the front-runners of GatorDemocrat's local progressive think tanks. If you want to form a local progressive think tank, all you have to do is show up at your next DFA meeting, or PDA meeting, or Drinking Liberally chapter. (To find a DFA meeting, go to DFALink.com; PDA group, go to http://pdamerica.org/orgs/findstate.php; Drinking Liberally chapter, go to http://www.drinkingliberally.org/locations.html). When you announce yourself, mention that you want to form a reading group on some subject you're interested in, and would a couple of people like to join you once a week for drinks and disucssion about it? By the way, don't constrain yourself to overtly political groups. Are you a member of a religious community? Union? Sewing club? As likely as not the people in the groups you are already a member of are also interested in your topic of interest. Tap some of your fellow churchgoers, union members, or knitters to see if they have an interest in forming a reading group. Bingo. You're well on your way to starting a think tank. Once you've got your group going, make sure to keep it going:

• Sharpen your focus as much as possible. Studying wind power week after week is much more effective than studying global warming one week, then air pollution the next, then endangered species the next.
• Focus on local issues. You are probably much more of an expert on the history behind the pollution of your local river than anyone else, and you are likely to have a much better idea what needs to be done to save it than most other people.
• Focus on an issue which is likely to remain important for a long time. This long-term focus will alleviate the pressure to generate reports by a certain deadline, which is key for a volunteer effort.
• Keep it going week after week. Make sure that there's always something new to discuss, whether it be an article, a blog post, a book, information about legislation in the state house or city council ordinances. You may want to assign two or three people to come up with each week's reading.
• Keep it going offline. Start an email discussion group, whether on Yahoo or some other service, to let your group members share quick thoughts throughout the week.
• Keep notes. These do not have to be detailed, blow-by-blow accounts. Take some time at the end of your discussion to summarize what was said. Make sure to keep track of new ideas generated, new books you want to read, legislation you want to track, and so on.

Finally, don't get too insular. By force of your own interest and research, you will quickly become experts on the subject you are researching. But there are other people in your neighborhood likely to be good allies and have lots of good experience in their heads. Look up advocacy groups who work on your issue, or one close to it. Look up professors at local colleges who study your issue. Talk to your city councillors, your city's bureaucrats, and people who work at service agencies devoted to your issue. Invite them to talk to your study group; if you want, you can make an event of it, although that can be a lot more trouble than it's worth. Generating Reports It's also important to take time occasionally to turn your thoughts into reports. Reports need not be industrial-strength, 250-page compendiums of everything that has ever been known about the Cuyahoga Creek in Fenton, Missouri. In fact, the shorter they are, and the more easy they are to summarize and digest for people outside your group, the better. But they have to be very well written and researched. Do not use the small size of your group as an excuse for sloppiness, poor grammar, or even worse, plagiarism. Take time with your reports; tweak them; send around drafts to your friends and family outside the group; let them ferment for a while. The wonderful thing about think tanks is that they stick around for a long time. Here are some thoughts about what makes a good report:

• A summary of the debate on various sides of a given issue
• A synopsis and exploration of a new angle to a given issue, or a new idea for solving a given issue
• Historical background on an issue
• Analysis of current trends that affect the issue, and, consequently, your predictions for how the issue will play out and what will be the ultimate resolution for it

Of course, these are just some thoughts. Each group is going to come up with its own ideas for good reports, probably much better than this generic list. Although a one-size-fits-all approach is likely to fail, aim for a report size of 10-25 pages. Be sure to include a one-page executive summary, as well as some information about your group and the authors. If you've got some relevant tables to include, please do. And footnote relentlessly! Give proper credit to those who have shaped your ideas. Although you don't want to put yourself on a strict production schedule, think about churning out reports on a semi-regular basis, maybe once every quarter or every six months. Be prepared to spend as much as a month putting together a report. After all, you are running a volunteer effort. Distributing Your Report The most important thing about a think tank, in my view, is that it regularly tries to distribute its ideas to the general public. Folks have good ideas every day in the shower; but they seldom write them down, research them, and send them out to media outlets, so they don't really go very far, do they? To start out, distribute your reports to those who are closest to you - both through personal relationships and ideology or interest. Send your reports to:

• Your friends and family. Ask them to spread it around to anyone who'd be interested.
• The larger group you are a part of. If your group formed as part of a DFA group, send it around to the group; if you're all members of the same congregation, include a note about your report in the church bulletin; and so on.
• The same city councillors, city bureaucrats, advocacy groups, service agencies, and professors who you talked to about your issue before generating the report.
• Your state legislators. They are remarkably accessible!
• Your US representatives and senators. It might get put in the special circular filing cabinet, or it might grab the representative's attention and spark a mention on the House floor; who knows?

Ok, now you've generated some good buzz, and your report is in a lot of people's hands. If your issue is timely, then so much the better. You're ready to send this thing out to the wider public. What do you do?

• Prepare a set of talking points. These should be three to five quick, easy sentences which you can rattle off in your sleep if a reporter calls or if you are interviewed on TV.
• Prepare an op-ed. Check with your local paper for more details, but usually op-eds have to be about 250-500 words. You don't want to copy and paste your executive summary, but feel free to crib from it largely. Make it accessible and easy to the read for the general public. A good rule of thumb is that a seventh grader should be able to understand it.
• Put your report online. Include a teaser that will make people want to download your oeuvre. Make sure to include your website in the op-ed.
• Put together a press release. Describe the main findings of the report, and also describe any interactions you've had with local politicians, service agencies, etc. Have they had positive feedback? If so, include that in the release.
• Prime the pump. Think about the outlets you want to distribute your report to before you even start it; watch their stories and make sure to regularly send in comments and feedback. If you are communicating with a local paper or small news station, you will very quickly build a name for yourself as a local expert on the subject. If you've been doing your homework diligently, then you've already done this.
• Now, send the release out to each of the outlets you've identified. Give a follow-up call to any reporters you think might be especially interested in the report. Make sure they've heard the talking points.

Rinse, Repeat The key in maintaining a good think tank is to keep the enterprise going over long periods of time. That can take money, and sometimes a lot of it. We can get to fundraising and turning your hard work into money to support your think tank later. For now, I think the key is to get your foot in the door, and I think it can be much easier than you think.