...The second, and larger, part of the survey will be devoted to message testing...

It's a matter of education. I am of the opinion that the message has been effectively written throughout over 200 years (and before) of our history. As a people we have had to constantly reaffirm our core beliefs - and their are plenty of eloquent examples of that reaffirmation from our past.

Use those reaffirmations. Identify them as such to the respondents. I believe the power of those expressions and the cachet of history will trump  anything else.    
 

If you google "Patrick Leahy statements" you'll find a series of eloquent reaffirmations.

What has changed in the last five years that our Government is so inept and our people so terrified that we must do what no bomb or attack could ever do by taking away the very freedoms that define America?  Why would we allow the terrorists to win by doing to ourselves what they could never do, and abandon the principles for which so many Americans today and through our history have fought and sacrificed?

Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. 2 (1866)

The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, [71 U.S. 2, 121] and under all circumstances. No doctrine, involving more pernicious consequences, was ever invented by the wit of man than that any of its provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government. Such a doctrine leads directly to anarchy or despotism, but the theory of necessity on which it is based is false; for the government, within the Constitution, has all the powers granted to it, which are necessary to preserve its existence...

Hi, Guy, and welcome to MyDD!

If I'm not mistaken, you were buds with my brother, Jeremy, in high school :)

-- Joel (Bloom)

Welcome. Good to see someone with a strong labor background on board.

I think the meme should center on a term  constantly  reiterated by Republicans personal freedom. As in, the govt & Republicans want to take away our personal freedom.

Habeas Corpus, in this age of media simplicity, sounds like a complex manuveur to the average Joe. My recommendation is always concentrate on language that hits the average working class stiff in the gut. This is why the Repubs & the RW noise machine have been so successful. Take Hannity, Rush & O'Reilly as examples, their language connects.

I know this is but a slice of the issue, but death penalty abolitionists have made headway by focusing on the possibility that an innocent person would be executed. Similarly, people won't care that much about judicial review if they believe the suspects are terrorists, so the message should be something like, unless habeas is restored there will be no guard against convicting and executing innocent people.

It seems to me that one of the most fundamental facts about terrorism is that it aims to delegitimize whatever governmental power it is aimed against.  Hence, it can only succeed if the government responds oppressively.  And this is precisely what the Bush Administration has done.

How to translate these basic facts into politically effective arguments is one of the most important things that a MyDD poll could do.  We're the ones who recognize the importance of being more than just politically effective for the moment, but rather being politically effective in a way that builds for the long run--which means connecting with deep principles and getting crucial information out there to become part of common knowledge.

For me, the basic message is this: America's greatest strength is not our military might, it's our values. We can't stand for freedom in the world, while undermining the foundations of freedom at home.

We probably need to test how many people subscribe to that view, and how different messages resonate to mobilize those who agree and/or shift the thinking of those who do not.

Were a driver to be held for investigation after being stopped for weaving late at night, with no charges filed, and the client calls his lawyer and says "get me out", it is habeas that would used.  

Hundreds of innocent prisoners have been freed in recent years as "acutally innocent", after many years of imprisonment, all by the use of habeas.  A client of mine spent seventeen years on death row before a habeas petition overturned his conviction and freed him.

People understand that this is what the legal system does but not that habeas is the means.

P. S. Guy, give my regards to Nan.  We have a mutual friend in David Tatel.