Issue 1
Oct. 23, 2006

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Trying it on For Size: Using the Recommendations

We thought it might be helpful to see how Demos is incorporating the insights from the How to Talk about Government research into its own work. In this issue of The Public Purpose, we have included an annotated op-ed commemorating the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which we drafted specifically to practice utilizing some of the research insights.

In this version of the op-ed, we provide annotations to highlight areas in which we attempted to use tips and recommendations from our research into Americans' perceptions of government.

In particular, we talk about public structures - a conceptual model developed by our research team designed to trigger more concrete and vivid images of the daily work of government. In using this concept, we are trying to make government more vivid by focusing on structures, not people in power or public servants. Additionally, we are trying to convey that America's prosperity and quality of life depend on the public structures we have created; those public structures are our government.

We also focus upon values, such as stewardship and protection, which the research showed were effective values frames to use when talking about government. We use these values to help connect the role of government to values that the country as a whole embraces. We talk about these values to emphasize the broad social goals which are unique to government.

For more insights from our research into Americans' perceptions of government, see How Americans Think about Government: Lessons for Talking about Government.

We hope this op-ed gives you a practical sense of how to utilize the research recommendations to simultaneously build support for government and to advocate for specific policy solutions.

Drafted: August 2006

¶1 Almost one year ago, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast with devastating effect. Levees failed. Evacuation plans were inadequate and poorly executed. The chain of command buckled. Those in New Orleans with the fewest resources suffered grave consequences when they were unable to leave.

¶2 All this happened in prime time, with plenty of notice of the impending catastrophe.

¶3 Anniversaries are moments to take stock. Katrina is, among other things, a sharp reminder of the importance of the public structures we rely on every day without even thinking about them. They are the result of a social and civic agreement to create the systems that benefit and protect us all. Whether they are levees protecting our communities, health care services for our family's well-being, or educational programs guaranteeing future opportunity, when they fail, we all lose. But, when we invest in and maintain those structures, we all rise. Now is the time to demonstrate our commitment to investing in our Gulf Coast communities and the essential structures and systems that create opportunity in this country.

¶4 As Americans, we expect adequacy and competence in our public systems--in our government. In return we are responsible for providing our support. But over the last 20 years, a hostile attitude toward government, fueled by partisan rancor and citizen discontent, has caused a troubling decline. We have forgotten that perhaps the greatest responsibility our elected leaders have is the responsible stewardship of the public resources we all own together.

¶5 Katrina clearly revealed widespread failures in this public responsibility. And in the year since the hurricane hit, the evidence has grown that, just as we neglected the levees in New Orleans long before Katrina came to call, we have neglected other public structures that keep opportunity in America open to all.

¶6 Just like the physical structures that should have protected against floodwaters, Katrina also overwhelmed the structures that are supposed to ensure economic opportunity for all Americans. Revealed to us all were the crippling effects of poverty and lost opportunity. From a stagnant minimum wage to declining access to higher education, the tools to get ahead have remained out of reach for too many in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast. At the time Katrina hit, almost 28 percent of the city's residents--and almost 24 percent of families--fell below the poverty line. When you look at the youngest, those figures are stark: In New Orleans, two out of five children under 18 live in poverty.

¶7 Nationally, parents working full time at the federal minimum wage while supporting a family of three fall $5,000 below the official poverty line of $16,600. And the poverty rate has grown, from a 26-year low in 2000 to nearly 13 percent of the population in 2004. That's 37 million Americans, 5.5 million more than four years previously.

¶8 These statistics were on stark display in the floodwaters last year and the deepening poverty gap shows no signs of abating unless we shift our policy focus now.

¶9 Just as we have committed to rebuilding Gulf Coast communities there are choices Congress can and should make to rebuild the structures and systems that create opportunity in this country. Ensure that anyone who works full time does not fall below the poverty line by phasing in an increase of the minimum wage to $8.40 an hour by 2010. Expand health insurance coverage and access to quality early childhood education and care. Provide larger tax credits to working families, rather than the wealthiest 1 or 2 percent. We also need long-term investments in affordable higher education and sustainable career ladder programs, both which have been gutted in recent years. Focusing on clear policy choices like these can help restore an economic foundation for the tens of millions of Americans who struggle every day to make a better living for themselves and their families, and the millions more teetering on the edge, ready to fall out of a highly unstable middle class.

¶10 The levees that protect New Orleans are being rebuilt, and to a higher standard. Will we invest as well in the public programs that provide opportunity for all our citizens, and give everyone a shot at college, affordable housing, adequate health care and the ability to raise a family?

¶11 We should and we can. Our history as a nation and the conscience of our people say we will. But only if we invest in and support the civic institutions on which our shared destiny ultimately depends.