Andrea Batista Schlesinger: Progressive Public Policy

A New York Times photo
Andrea Batista Schlesinger has been the Executive Director of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy (DMI), a think tank for the progressive movement, for five years. Under Andrea’s leadership, DMI has released several important policy papers to national audiences, including “Middle Class 2004: How Congress Voted,� “People and Politics in America’s Big Cities,� and “From Governance to Accountability: Building Relationships that Make Schools Work.�
And just in case you need an extra boost to help get you to the polls on Tuesday, here’s Andrea…

Can you talk about your work at the Drum Major Institute, and what it means to be a public policy think tank for the progressive movement?
For a long time, the conservative movement was very focused on developing think tanks to build up their larger efforts to generate ideas, frame discussions to the public, and communicate their ideas to policy makers, op-ed pages and on the shelves of bookstores, and the Left didn’t have a response. While we have been progressive, and very focused on either single issues or on people who we thought would save us, we haven’t done the work in the way that the Right has in developing institutions that would really help to shape public policy and decide ideas; to help inform people who are in office, who want to be in office, what progressive policy should look like.
The Drum Major Institute was founded during the Civil Rights Movement by Harry Wachtel, who was a lawyer and an adviser to Dr. King. The name, “The Drum Major Institute,� comes from King being a drum major for justice and setting the beat for larger movements. And King would refer to Harry Wachtel and this other group of lawyers in New York as his think tank. And so we were reborn in this incarnation about five years ago with the same idea of being this think tank that would generate ideas to serve the larger movement for justice.
The term “think tank� sounds horribly boring, but what we try to do is to challenge how people think about think tanks, and challenge how think tanks do business. So, it’s not about having an Ivory Tower-insulated conversation. But instead, how do we get our cues from grassroots? How do we create tools that actually get people engaged in a conversation about policy?
Is the Drum Major Institute made up of policy makers? How does a think tank operate?
We have a core staff, most of whom are former activists and grassroots folks. They come from a variety of backgrounds. We have fellows who are unlike most think tank fellows. Especially on the conservative Right, who are kind of professional pundits but really have no idea first-hand what they are talking about. Our fellows are grassroots organizers and activists who typically run organizations and are also affiliated with us. We do research projects. We have a website and blog. We organize with them, and policy makers from around the country come and talk about how they successfully tackle problems.
Do many politicians come up with their own public policies, or do they mostly rely on think tanks?
It depends. On the Right, I think there are a lot more direct relationships between think tanks and policy makers. On the Left, I think it depends. There are some organizations and a lot of advocacy organizations, but generally that’s around one type of issue. So, you generally get an issue-based platform or research into that issue. There are very few multi-issue think tanks out there on the Left that look at issues in terms of how they’re all connected.
I asked somebody who ran for mayor a few years ago, “Where do you get your ideas?� And he said The New York Times. Some people will just come up with stuff on their own. Some people get it from the newspaper. Some get it from relationships with organizations. Some people get it because before they were elected officials they were actually out there in the world working on these issues. So, it depends.
Do you know if the Bush administration uses any think tanks? And if so, which ones?
Oh, yeah. The Hudson Institute here in New York are their best friends. The Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute.
Preparing for the upcoming election, do many politicians have public policies that they want to implement and are campaigning for? Or do public policies mostly happen once politicians are elected to office?
It depends. It’s nice when people have an agenda and want to be voted for more than their good looks and charm. That’s always nice. I think a lot of people have an idea, but it also depends on what office you’re talking about. Are you running for mayor? Are you running for Congress? Is it about how you vote? Or is it about people who want to actually govern? It depends.
What are some examples of public policy that affect social and economic fairness?
There’s certainly a big conversation about tax policy. And that’s a very core question that kind of separates the Left from the Right. Tax policy is very much about what kind of vision you have of government. Is government there to represent my interests and to take care of me? To make sure that I can retire? To make sure that I have a good public school system to send my kid to? I think that’s how we define [political] progressives. People who believe government can play a positive role in people’s lives and taxes are what enables that. It’s our collective investment in making the country a better place.
And those on the Right want government to be as small as possible. They want as little taxes as possible because then government would have less to work with.
Would the right for same-sex marriage be an example of a public policy?
How you define rights is public policy. How people are able to live and work is determining a public policy.
Public policy is not a word used a lot by mainstream media.
That’s part of the challenge, what does public policy really mean? And I think public policy, whether it’s legislation that you vote on or a decision that a mayor makes, or for example what the state legislature in New Jersey will have to do now—they’ve been given a definition of rights, now they’ll have to figure out what policies embody those rights. Public policy is essentially the rules by which things operate.
What are some things that the Drum Major Institute is doing in preparation for the upcoming election?
I should say first we are a non-partisan and non-profit organization, so we’re not actually able to weigh in on a partisan way. But every year we do a scorecard of members of Congress based on their votes and on legislation we think is key to strengthening and expanding the middle class. And we choose that lens for a variety of reasons.
But every year we pick legislation and we give members of Congress a grade and this year, in addition to doing that, we launched this Google campaign. If you search for members of Congress by Google, you get an ad put up with that person’s score. Twenty-one million people have seen our ads. I encourage voters to try to learn more about their members of Congress.
And that’s part of having to do think tank stuff differently. Our motto here is, if it wasn’t read, it wasn’t written. So, how do you do things in a way that actually engages people into conversations?
What are some public policy issues Americans should take into consideration when they vote this Tuesday?
Definitely when looking at Congress: Where are they on non tax-cuts for the wealthy? Where were they on the bankruptcy bill? Where are they on immigration? Where are they when it comes to making the Pell grant available to fewer and fewer students? It’s getting harder and harder to get some people to afford a college education.
There’s a reason why people don’t think about public policy a lot. It’s because it’s not talked about a lot. The mainstream press is not so interested in reporting on public policy. They’re more interested in covering policy like it was a soap opera, and so it’s hard to get this kind of information.
How did you become interested in public policy?
When I was a kid in high school, I was really interested in student government-types of things. I grew up in New York City and when I was in high school, they created this position to put a student on the board of education. And so, I did that.
I think there’s a continuum in which people can fight for justice. Some people write. Some people report. Some people organize. Some people provide services. Some people do this kind of work. And you’re lucky if you find your place on that continuum, and know where you belong and where you can do the best kind of good. I felt from that experience that the best place for me was dealing with policy inside the system, or advocating for policy from a place like the Drum Major.

What advice do you have for a young woman who is looking to pursue public policy as a profession?
Excellent. My advice is do it [Laughs] because there definitely needs to be a lot more people like me in these worlds as staffers to elected officials, doing work in think tanks, doing those kinds of analysis. It’s not enough to protest. It’s not enough to organize. It’s not enough to be on the margins. That’s not enough. If we continue to look at activism in that way, then we will not be in the circles of influence that enable us to actually determine public policy and determine the ways of people’s lives. And help to make the decisions that guide people’s lives.
So, I think do it. It’s not glamorous to be a legislative director for a member of the City Council. But it’s critical work.
Are there particular challenges or steps that should be taken?
Learn stuff. Be engaged with the world. The first time I worked in government, I studied public policy on an undergraduate level. I don’t think that’s necessary. I don’t think it’s necessary to have a master’s in public policy. For the most part, I think what policy makers are looking for are people who understand issues. Who understand what is happening in the world. Who are strong communicators, and who have a real commitment to long-term change.
I recommend working on a political campaign at some point to see what it’s like. Some people call politics a sausage factory. You like the sausage but you don’t want to see how it’s made. And everybody should see how policies work from that side. People should do internships with policy makers they respect, and engage on that level. I think doing that gives you enough experience to figure out if you want to get into this field.