It's Not WHAT You Say, It's HOW You Say It
It's still early in the race for the White House for 2008, but so far, I am seeing no signs that Democrats have learned the biggest lesson from the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. While Democrats have been presenting nuanced platforms with shades of gray to address complicated issues that the U.S. government should be tackling, Republicans in general and George W. Bush in particular have used buzzwords to appeal to the baser instincts of the voting public. While Democrats are trying to use logic to appeal to voters' brains, Republicans are using wedge issues like abortion and gay marriage to pull on voters' heart strings or hit them in the gut. I think 2000 and 2004 prove that, at least in a presidential election, voters use the area below the neck rather than their heads to choose a president. That kind of pattern can benefit either party, because Bill Clinton used the same kind of approach to win his two terms in office.
A lot of Democrats are all abuzz at the Barack Obama candidacy, and his eat-your-spinach approach to campaigning may appeal to hardcore Democrats who are tired of being hit over the head with Republican talking points, but telling voting constituencies that they need to swallow some foul-tasting medicine to get the country back on track is no way to win the popular vote. It may be the truth, but it's not going to get you into the Oval Office.
They need to use some of that buzzword trickery that Republicans have used (like turning the Estate Tax into a Death Tax) to appeal to voters' hearts, not their minds. The problem with that approach is that the country's problems (and the world's for that matter) are too complicated to reduce a policy to one or two catchphrases, so you are essentially diluting or twisting your message just to be heard by more people. Not to mention selling your soul to the political Devil.
Bush figured out how to speak to people's hearts. Clinton not only spoke to people's hearts, but also managed to spoon-feed a few ideas into their brains at the same time.
Is there anybody in either party that has the ability to speak to your heart?
A lot of Democrats are all abuzz at the Barack Obama candidacy, and his eat-your-spinach approach to campaigning may appeal to hardcore Democrats who are tired of being hit over the head with Republican talking points, but telling voting constituencies that they need to swallow some foul-tasting medicine to get the country back on track is no way to win the popular vote. It may be the truth, but it's not going to get you into the Oval Office.
They need to use some of that buzzword trickery that Republicans have used (like turning the Estate Tax into a Death Tax) to appeal to voters' hearts, not their minds. The problem with that approach is that the country's problems (and the world's for that matter) are too complicated to reduce a policy to one or two catchphrases, so you are essentially diluting or twisting your message just to be heard by more people. Not to mention selling your soul to the political Devil.
Bush figured out how to speak to people's hearts. Clinton not only spoke to people's hearts, but also managed to spoon-feed a few ideas into their brains at the same time.
Is there anybody in either party that has the ability to speak to your heart?
posted by cvo @ 2:37 PM
3 Comments:
At 5:41 PM,
R said…
Wow, you guys have had a sudden burst of ideas! I've been traveling so much for the last month I hadn't checked in for a while. As for this topic, as long as we don't get someone like Newt, I think we'll be OK. The most important thing is for the Bush/Cheney crowd to be cleaned out, and for the Congress to continue to re-assert it's proper Constitutional role in the balance of powers.
At 11:22 AM,
cvo said…
Don't know if it's just coincidental timing or not, but when I opened the new issue of Time Magazine, there was an article on this exact topic mainly focused on Barack Obama and his tendency to tell voters things they don't want to hear, even though they may be true.
In the article, Obama says he thinks voters are ready for somebody to speak the truth and speak with candor instead of the usual politics. He thinks it could be part of the whole "people want change" movement. For his sake, I hope he's right.
I'm not sold on Obama yet, but I hope he's right and that more candidates will get off the political fence and speak openly and honestly about what needs to be done.
At 2:56 AM,
jmeriwether said…
I really like Obama, but am worried about his lack of policy experience. Haven't decided yet if I will vote for him in the primary, but I'm intrigued. My sister Anna-Maria is worried that some crackpot racist is going to assassinate him. It never even occurred to me before she said it and now I think about it and I so hope she's wrong. Anyway, he's the one who speaks to my heart.
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