Vilsack interview: Reframe the debate

In a new Salon interview, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack suggests Democrats keep losing because they don't take advantage of language. They need, the oft-mentioned 2008 presidential candidate says, to reframe the debate:

"Democrats have spent all of their time and energy on policies and programs that impact and affect people's lives. Republicans have spent all of their time on ideas -- how to couch those ideas, frame those ideas, and communicate those ideas....In my view, our language has to be reframed in the context of the American promise -- the concept I grew up with in which each generation believed it had a responsibility to the succeeding generation to make life better. It's the reason why my folks sacrificed to make sure I had a college education, why people served in the armed forces and came back and built a strong and vibrant economy, then sacrificed to make sure that their children had a better life."