On the last November Fifth call, we discussed a nationally representative survey that would test the political power of various basic civic messages and themes. If we found one or more messages that strongly resonated, we could use the survey to support our policy proposals.

This is a forum for working collaboratively on the survey. I have posted very broad ideas as "civic theme #1," "civic theme #2," etc. You can add more themes, comment critically on any themes that have been posted so far, or reply to each theme with more detail. (It would be great to add actual survey questions.)

Most Americans are not asked to play serious roles in addressing our most important problems.

People have enormous capacity to create good things by working together voluntarily. An example is the way people have created the Internet out of practically nothing. Yet politicians tend to portray a world of competing interest groups, fighting over scarce resources. What we need is better opportunities to collaborate and create.

We spend all our time talking to people who think a lot like we do. There is a great deal of diversity in the American population, but our discussions aren't diverse enough. We need opportunities to talk civilly and constructively with people who are different.

We assign important public responsibilities to experts. For example, we expect professional educators to handle education. But experts do not know everything, and others have much to contribute.

The government isn't the solution to our problems, nor is it the problem. What solves problems is respectful partnerships between government and other parts of society.

Voting and volunteering are important, but neither one is sufficient to address public problems. Often, our experiences with volunteering are discouraging because we are assigned superficial jobs. Elections matter, but each vote doesn't count for that much. We need more serious opportunities to complement voting and volunteering.

We value local communities with their own traditions and face-to-face relationships. But valuing local communities doesn't mean that we are afraid of diversity. We see diversity around us as a strength.