A longtime
policy expert in Washington, Bernie Horn still has a sensitive ear for the
hurly-burly of local campaigns in many corners of the country.
Guided by 30 years of policy analysis and frustrated by both the success of
deceptive right-wing messages and the abstraction of messaging debates on
the left, Horn decided to create his own resource. He wrote
Framing the Future: How Progressive Values Can Win Elections and
Influence People. Case by case, story by story, Horn traces the
major themes in progressive beliefs: freedom, security, and opportunity. He
follows politicians from east to west, from the border with Mexico to the
border with Canada, who have used language smartly to challenge attacks on
themselves and constitutional rights. An earnest takeoff on the old Dale
Carnegie art-of-persuasion system, it is one of the most accessible and
pointed manuals on rhetoric and communication in American politics. It is
also a launching pad for trainings, workshops, coalitions, and further
candidacies.
Horn lobbied for the Brady Bill limiting handgun purchases and pushed for
the ban on assault weapons, later undone by John Ashcroft, the Bush
Administration, and Congressional Republicans. He is a veteran of the drive
throughout the 1990s to curb tobacco use and marketing among minors. He is a
board member of the
Ballot Initiative Strategy Center Foundation. Horn is
currently policy director for the
Center for Policy Alternatives.
