THE PRO-CHILD AND FAMILY CARE AGENDA AS PERSUASIVE AGENDA

Seventy percent of the electorate (or more) has already definitely decided who they how they will vote for President and that they will make sure to vote. That leaves thirty percent – those who haven’t firmly decided on their choice or whether they will vote at all (or both) as those who will decide the election. 

Campaigns have placed particular time and emphasis upon “getting out the vote,” e.g. identifying those who lean to their candidate and work to make sure they get out to vote. That, however, is only part of that group. 

Those who are undecided or can be convinced to change their vote are key to who will be elected and what mandate they will then have to act on their agenda.

That group which is unsure of who they will vote or persuadable to shift their vote is not monolithic, but research shows it overall is more likely to be women, parents, and those providing direct care services than the population as a whole. They also are more likely to be concerned about meeting their own household budgets, disappointed and anxious about the choices they have as candidates, and not seeing candidates addressing their own concerns and beliefs. (Kauffman Poll, Parents Together poll).

In addition, there is another important set of potential “swing voters” or persuadables, who shifted from voting for Barack Obama in 2012 to Donald Trump in 2016. This shift was largest within rural, white, working class counties (think Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Iowa). Polls have shown that providing messages that appeal to this group on the pro-child, pro-family, care agenda can be effective.

Research also shows that the pro-child, pro-family, care agenda resonates with many of these voters – if and when they hear and learn about it.  It appeals to their own specific concerns about managing their household budgets AND their own goals of being valued for what they do and giving their children a future they feel that had but is slipping away (To the Bottom of the Trump Vote). 

The fact is the pro-child and family, care agenda resonates with a large portion of these voters – if and when they hear and learn about it. 

Much work has been done on developing the right message to persuade voters, and the consensus is that messages work best when they start by confirming underlying common values (framework) and then describe why a candidate or policy supports that value, and only then get into the details on how that relates to voters and the choices they make (see the Frameworks Institute report on the power of a Collective Caregiving framework and Parents Together basic frame).

At the same time, messages also require a messenger, and political media ads, although they may energize (or enrage) the confirmed voter, are notoriously unreliable as a credible source for persuadable voters. 

If persuadables are to be educated about the pro-child and family care agenda and influenced in voting for candidates who support it, they are most likely to do so from people and information sources that they trust.

There are nine million people in the workforce who provide direct care, and the care they provide extends to many millions more people for whom they provide care. They are respected for the work they do (broadly recognized as the heroes and sheroes of the Covid-19 pandemic). To the extent they talk about politics at all, they are effective influencers of others (including those in their own family).  

As a group, these caregivers themselves are voters and many are in the persuadable camp. The fact is, however, that currently many are not aware of the care agenda. Caring Across Generations and National Association of Community Health Workers represent organizations with credibility and existing connections to those individuals. MomsRising and Parents Together are organizations with strong connections to those most responsive to the pro-child and family care agenda.

Helping voters renew their belief in a positive role for government and its particular potential in supporting children, families, and those who care for them involves kitchen table conversations and front-steps communications, county café dialogues at morning coffees, and conversations and discussions in churches, mosques, synagogues, and other gatherings in the community. 

While candidates and their campaigns recognize the importance of doing so and campaign consultants now refer to it as “micro-targeting” and “relational campaigning”, it is not where the vast majority of campaign funds go (in large measure because it is much easier, and more profitable to consultants, to spend campaign resources on polling, broad-band messaging, and media buys). 

This means there is a huge opportunity to educate persuadable, through trusted messengers who have been energized to talk and listen in those venues and share information about that pro-child and family care agenda. 

Those providing care through voluntary activities to other family members or relatives or others in the community and those in the care workforce are the most effective and best messengers and influencers  – and will speak from the heart and with wisdom in doing so.  Parents Together has a Family First Frame and a strategy for use which can initiate such discussions (adapted for the particular care agenda described here).

Polls also show that, while the voters right now are put off by much of the campaigning and certainly the divisive and negative (and even apocalyptic) rhetoric, they want to find more common ground. They don’t want to be at odds with their uncle or middle-sibling to the extent they dread talking with them. While this divisiveness may not be erased overnight, finding common ground around the importance of a pro-child and family care agenda represents a powerful start.

The pro-child and family care message can and should be delivered in multiple ways and depends upon the context and the readiness of the audience for the degree to which it will sink in. Fortunately, those in the care workforce and those who care about care are most likely to possess exactly those communications skills and are most credible in delivering the message.

Families Togher emphasizes for its Families First message (which is adapted here to be a pro-child and family care message and included in the resources) that the following are key to having the message heard (and a discussion initiated):

* Connect around shared values of love and care (looking out for one another)

*  Acknowledge economic pain (and anxiety and frustration)

* Explain how the care agenda represents the best of what government can do

* Describe how votes matter and there are candidates to support who will fight for it

In a more than an elevator speech but covering the above, the following truly can move voters (and candidates and elections) to realize it:

CORE MESSAGE:  

We all care deeply about our families and our children and we all believe that government should be there to support us in that role, particularly when circumstances make it hard. We don’t want to be divided by our differences – in faith, gender, race, career, or zip code -- but too often politics plays on such differences rather than pulling us together. 

We want government to provide pro-child and family policies that make it possible for families to raise their children according to their values and be economically secure in doing so. We want policies that ensure, when families have special needs, they don’t have to choose between being a breadwinner or a caregiver in meeting them or experience stress that jeopardizes the quality time they want and need.

A pro-child and family care agenda won’t address everything families need to succeed, but it will always support and strengthen the capacity for families to care for one another, raise their children to succeed, and be included as valued members of their community.

· That agenda includes a tax code that recognizes families with children have greater expenses than those without children – and expands the Child Tax Credit for everyone and reducing child poverty in half.

· That agenda includes what all other industrial nations provide – paid family leave – so parents do not have to choose between keep a job and providing nurturing care with the birth of a child or when a family member is sick.

· That agenda includes subsidized child care and preschool that enables families with young children to get by and get ahead while knowing their child is well-supervised and nurtured.

· That agenda includes home-and-community-based services to enable family members with disabilities and special needs, including children, to maintain themselves in their communities and not to place additional burdens on those in the “sandwich” generations now providing primary care for both their children and their parents.

The pro-child and family care agenda is on the ballot this November. It fell only a few votes short of being enacted in 2024. We need to elect a President who champions it and working majorities in the House and Senate to enact it. It is time we move our political system back to enacting policies that support what unites us and be about our children and families.