New Democrat strategy: We must stimulate the amygdalae!
This is high-larious. The Hill reports on an internal Democrat strategy memo complaining that the Democrat Party is too hyper-rational and lacks emotional appeal.
For real. They think “SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILLLLLDREN!” is too bland and accountant-like:
Democrats are losing the battle for voters’ hearts because the party’s message lacks emotional appeal, according to a widely circulated critique of House Democratic communications strategy.
“Our message sounds like an audit report on defense logistics,” wrote Dave Helfert, a former Appropriations spokesman who now works for Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii). “Why are we defending [the State Children’s Health Insurance Program] instead of advocating a ‘Healthy Kids’ plan?”
Helfert sent the memo this week to an e-mail list of all Democratic press secretaries and communications directors after staffers met on Monday to discuss rolling out the Democrats’ latest message.
He said the meeting left him cold because it focused on what polling shows voters want rather than how to present persuasive messages. Republicans have done a better job by developing poll data into focus group-tested messages like “culture of life” and “defending marriage,” along with attacks like “cut and run” and “plan for surrender” in Iraq, he argued.
My favorite part:
“I’m not trying to stage a coup,” Helfert said. “I’m hoping leadership and some of the members will embrace these principles.”
His memo is sharply critical of Republican policies but also suggests a neurological explanation for Republican message success: By using emotional appeals and warning of dire threats, Republicans can trigger neurons called “amygdalae” in the temporal lobe, which is the seat of the “fight or flight” response in the brain.
“Almost every Republican message contains a simple and direct moral imperative, a stark contrast between good and evil, right and wrong, common sense and fuzzy liberal thinking,” Helfert wrote. “Meanwhile, we’re trying to ignite passions with analyses of optimum pupil-teacher ratios.”
Yesterday, it was a “vote against S-CHIP is a vote against Jesus!” Last week, it was “Bush blows up people for his amusment!” And, of course, there’s the “MaglaGONG” strategy to deflect criticism of Democrat campaign finance shenanigans. And the open-borders DREAM Act agitprop.
The Democrats’ problem isn’t understimulation of the amygdalae. It’s overstimulation. Perhaps a political lobotomy–separating the nutroots lobe from the party’s thalamus–might be a far more effective prescription.
***
Ed Morrissey: “The Democrats have no problem exciting the amygdalae of their followers. The problem comes when the rest of the people use the rest of their brain to analyze their agenda and their tactics. Helfert might want to have the Democrats address those issues if they want to discover why they keep getting outboxed by a lame-duck President.”
Betsy Newmark: “Democrats just can’t believe that sometimes, people actually like Republican ideas but must just be fooled by a deceptive message. And why is he so convinced that Democrats don’t know how to craft emotional messages? What about all those “do it for the children” messages that Democrrats are constantly using? Isn’t that an emotional appeal?”
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- The Democrats, The Party Of Amygdala? | Stuck On Stupid
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Darn and here I thought “amygdalae” was a member of Code Pink !
an insult to accountants every where!
Republicans have spent far too much time acting like emotional Democrats. When the Republicans actual do something, they win because action eventually trumps emotion. The Dems are all about appeal and nothing about substance - and that is their problem. At the extreme, which is the party of the Democrat party that gets most of the press, the Dems appear to be unhinged and even insane.
A vote against S-CHIP is a vote against Jesus.
Rational.
Would this be done with government funded healthcare?
“Democrats are losing the battle for voters’ hearts because the party’s message lacks emotional appeal,…”
??????
DEMOCRATS are failing to appeal to the emotions?
What?!?
This sounds like a variant of leftist/liberal projection to me.
Anyone else read it that way?
#3 - bravo. Well said
I was in a debate with a liberal regarding illegal immigration. She was going on about they are in need and we should help them in their needs. You are cruel, etc. I stated that it isn’t an emotional issue for me it is a logical issue: the law is the law. Her comment was “Emotions are everything!”
That is the typical thought process of a liberal. They do not operate in the logical realm, they operate in emotions only. Untamed, unfiltered and unabashed emotionalism.
So yes, they are on emotional overload all the time. Logic escapes them and I really do think that they think Logic is their enemy! Untamed emotions = Democat Party.
Yes, especially for a party that - by and large - wants nothing to do with Jesus save once every four years.
I propose a new Democrat strategy: become Republicans.
In reality, however, I enjoy watching the Democrat/liberal/moonbat implosion. It’s like a water balloon - the left tries really hard to hide its lunacy, but the balloon begins to leak and eventually explodes…exposing the truth gushes out all over the place.
Is the amygdalae the part of the brain that causes chronic delusions?
Yes, God forbid they focus on what the voters want.
Ummm…thought I’d point out:
In the diagram above, I believe the green structure that is labeled “hippocampus” is actually not the hypothalamus; but, rather, the caudate nucleus.
‘Course, I’m remembering my neuroanatomy of >30 years ago.
And, I haven’t the time right now to check my reference texts.
So, I may be wrong…but, like Monk, I don’t think so.
Its hard for me to imagine the Dramacrats being any more emotional than they are now. As it is they threaten to have a nervous breakdown on every issue before congress if they don’t get their way.
In #12 above, I meant to write hippocampus instead of hypothalamus.
Sorry….
#11
lol, good catch Ditkaca
The Dems shouldn’t be worried about stimulating their amygdalae.
You need a brain to do that and sadly, they are lacking one.
As far as emotions, I agree that the Dems are too emotional and don’t let rational thought impede their quest for being stupid. However, where is their emotion regarding defending this country against terrorists, murderers, pedophiles, rapists, ILLEGAL immigrants scamming our taxpayers, etc.???
*rolls his eyes*
This is priceless.
So basicly, this guy wants the Dems to find a better way to trick people.
Am I getting that right?
Proof that they know they got nothin’.
Nearly every dem memo like this that leaks out has this usual “We’re being too intellectual. We have to be dumb like the Republicans” remark. What strikes me as so dumb, though, is the dem’s inability to ever consider that perhaps it is their ACTUAL MESSAGE rather than message delivery that the American people are rejecting. The truth is, the American people understand all too well what it is the dems want, and they say “no” more often than they say “yes.” But let’s keep this to ourselves and let the dems believe it isn’t the message itself. By all means, carry on with your hard turn left. Carry on until the 08 election.
If the Liberals are “hyper-rational” then why don’t any of their ideas, you know, work?
Fight or flight area of the brain,eh.The Dems seem to always be stuck in the flight zone.Lets not try to change them,they crash and burn at every turn.
Now is the time to strike some fatal blows to the Democrats. I mean the Socialist Democrats. Now is the time to start pointing out this congress has done absolutely nothing since they were elected. Remember, they hijacked the congress the first 100 days and have produced nothing of substance since. They declared defeat in the war, attacked our military leaders, and used every trick in the book to take power at all levels in spite of what the American people want. Case in point, yesterdays s-chip riots pushed through in the most classless way possible. It’s time to turn up the heat and start attacking their failed takeover of OUR government with their anti-American values because the Dems dam is starting to leak all over their socialist agenda.
My observation is the Dems are totally brain dead anyway so what difference does it make which part they use?
“The essence of the modern Democratic party is that they’re willing to insult the intelligence of 49% of the people if they think they can fool 51%. - Ann Coulter.
I am continually disturbed by the condescending nature with which the people here and in much of the blogosphere treat the tactics of of the Dems. Guess what IT IS WORKING
Furthermore, the reason it is working is for all of the reasons the strategist everyone is snickering at is talking about. The Dems are making the more effective emotional arguement and that arguement is hitting the proper parts of most people’s brains. That is why this atrocious bill is being approved of by the public overwhelmingly.
It doesn’t have to be this way however that would take the Rep politicians fighting back.
In the meantime, maybe we should stop all of the snickering at the Dems because they have the upper hand politically. Instead, maybe we should direct our snickering at the hapless Republican leadership that allowed themselve to be outflanked by this atrocious bill.
I, for one, am getting real tired of reading all of these condescending stories about Dems and their tactics when the public agrees with them two to one.
The new Democrat plan consists of them threatening to get emotional, eh?
Isn’t that like the Frankenstein monster saying “Don’t make me get ugly”?
And just how are Americans supposed be able to tell when Democrats “start” to get emotional? Will they now emit a Dean scream before and after each eruption of their already over-the-top hysterics?
YEAARRRRGGGHH!!!
You’ll have to complain to the Dems, Mike - afterall they are the ones who have decided their tactics aren’t working. (That’s what the article here is all about.)
Let them get even more loonified & hysterical (if that’s even possible), I say.
Besides, dissent is the real patriotism, doncha know.
(Yeah, I think I made up “loonified”, but I like it.)
A vote against S-CHIP is a vote against Jesus.
No, How about a vote against S-CHIP is a vote against Jesus(pronounced Hey-Zeus) getting free medical care just for being illegal.
In fact, I’ll bet that’s exactly what the Dems meant when they made this statement, they just pronounced Jesus incorrectly.
Just saw Bush on FOX news paraphrasing here…..he’s fed up with Congress.
Aren’t we all?
Approval rating; -1%
“Almost every Republican message contains a simple and direct moral imperative, a stark contrast between good and evil”
The concept of right and wrong does tend to bother sociopaths. And, apparently, the Democrat party.
Great, purplepeep. That’s priceless.
The Democrats want to appeal to the “reptilian brain.” What an unintended commentary on their agenda.
But then, you repeat yourself…
Excellent post, Michelle!
If any of you folks are interested in an interesting story from my part of the woods, check this out!
Overheard on the House floor:
“Every time you vote against SCHIP, God smites a baby seal! Kill this bill and you kill the CHIIIIIILDREN (and baby seals)!”
/not really, but hey, someone could’ve said it!
(Carnac holds the sealed envelope up to his turban)
CARNAC: Amygdalae.
ED McMAHON: Amygdalae?
(Carnac rips the envelope open and removes the card)
CARNAC (reading): The sound Keith Olbermann makes when he’s trying to pronounce Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s maiden name.
Thanks, EQ. I wonder about people who are uncomfortable with even admitting to the possibilty there is good and evil in this world.
Back to the main topic, I’d cheer on the Dems and hope they produce more explosions and Tom Cruise-like couch jumping behavior - they really have no clue how that goes over outside of the Kos/nutroots corner.
Things like the Firedoglake blog which put up a photoshopped pic of Joe Lieberman in blackface during the last election, now the always-goofy Naomi Wolf is there ranting how the SoCal fires are really Bush-Hitler’s Reichstag fires and she commands the lunatics take to the streets.
Chock full of rampant, obviously drug-induced paranioa and other fun bizarre fringe silliness!
Taking It To the Streets
I can’t wait for that one to get more emotional.
I have some inside information on this…the reason they are calling for this is due to a recent book by radical leftist-Emory psychology professor Drew Westen called ‘The Political Brain’. Drew is kind of a wanna-be George Lakoff only his theories aren’t as scientifically sound. That won’t stop Dems from jumping all over his reasearch, though, I’m sure. One thing I would like to suggest to anyone reading this is that the future of politics lies with whomever best understands the subject of political psychology. All Republican strategists should be focusing more on technology and political psychology and those that don’t will be doing the conservative cause a severe disservice.
“The concept of right and wrong does tend to bother sociopaths. And, apparently, the Democrat party.”
I never repeat myself, swj - I never repeat myself. I’m just not the type to repeat myself. Nope, never repeat. Never.
They aren’t working in terms of passing the bill, however read any poll and you will realize they are working.
It, frankly, isn’t in their best interest to pass the bill because the longer this is an issue the better it is for them.
If all you want to continue to believe in the narrative of this echo chamber that somehow the Reps have the upper hand, that is your problem. However, I have looked at the polling and the numbers are overwhelmingly against the Reps.
You can all snicker and frankly it reminds me of the snickering the Kos Kids did vis a vis warrantless wiretapping. They were also in an echo chamber that thought they were right politically.
Say what you want, the Reps are getting crushed on this issue.
The narrative is simple and it is clear, the Reps are heartless war mongers who would rather spend billions for a needless war than cough up a few billion for poor kids. If you want to pretend the narrative is something more like what it is on Michelle’s site, it is only because you don’t find your news from anywhere else.
Forget the policy. This bill is an abomination and that is why it is disheartening to see the Reps get taken to school politically on it.
A couple of anagrams of Amygdalae:
Lay Damage
Malady Age
A Gamy Deal
Now it makes sense…..
Purple…
Was merely continuing yuor paraphrasing of Twain.
Mike Volpe #25….Don’t disagree there needs to be better communication…what is the sound bite that needs to get out?
As always, the real political physician, Dr. Michelle, has prescribed the correct treatment. Now, we need to prepare for surgery!
zorro
If I might offer a second opinion. I think a procedure removing their cranium from their rectal cavity is what is really called for here.
While I agree wholeheartedly that the
Socialistser,Progressives, er Liberals (yeah, that’s the ticket!) do far more thinking with their emotions than with their intellect. We seem to be forgetting the Smartest Woman in the World’s extreme LACK of emotion (except when Bill escapes her leash)Glad you inserted “MaglaGONG” into it. Its all about you…..
What this means is that Democrats and leftists are in a continual program to DUMB-DOWN their message.
they assume that people cant POSSIBLY disagree with them, its just that people are too STUPID to grasp what they are driving at.
So they use endless short SLOGANS to touch raw nerves:
Culture of Corruption.
No War for Oil.
Bush Lied, People Died.
Halliburton.
Republicans Hate (kids, seniors, black people, etc.)
They dont offer ideas or programs; they offer advertising sound bites.
And when they lose in Congress or the court of public opinion, they cant beleive its coz their ideas suck, it must be because they didnt get the snappy SLOGAN they needed.
Maybe the democrats need to hire Naome Wolf to come and dress their
messagepropaganda in nice earth tones. It worked for algore didn’t it?I wrote two entire blog posts about the message
The most important thing is that the Reps must aggressively communicate that they have an alternative. The problem now is that the Dems have effectively convinced everyone that the Reps are against SCHIP as opposed to the Dems version of SCHIP. The Reps must aggressively sell their own plan. I cannot hear about the details of the Reps plan on Michelle’s site first. If I do, that means that the Reps aren’t selling it effectively themselves.
Second, the Reps must effectively sell the negative emotion associated with the Dems plan:CORRUPTION. They must make everyone understand that bloated governments are corrupt governments. They must draw comparisons between their plan and the Dems plan. All I hear out of the Reps is the Dems plan will cover too many people that already have insurance (yes that leads to corruption) however not once have I heard those same politicians follow that up by saying our plan, which the Dems refuse to let up for a vote, won’t do that and IT WILL cover the poor kids that are supposed to be covered.
Right now, perception is reality and the perception is that the Reps are against SCHIP, not against the Dems version of SCHIP and they have their own smaller version of SCHIP.
Does that explain it?
Yeh, Scooter, I am sure she does all this for her health. GET OVER YOURSELF.
more like go f___ yourself.
Mike, you’re not making any sense - a difference which makes no difference is no difference.
If winning all the battles - as you admit is happening - is “getting crushed”, I’ll take it.
i disagree with your notion that what is right politically has to be otherwise wrong. That’s called a “false dichotomy”, Mike. And I’d say be driven by every whiff of a given poll at any given time is the worst sort of “echo chamber”. (Being poll driven is not a good idea in general - ask President Dewey.)
Yeah and even Pelosi had to tell Stark to stop screwing things up by tossing out that “narrative”. That’s even with your claim it was so “effective”.
Yes, I really should check this morning’s polls to decide policy matters and to find out what’s right in general. Not as informative as reading actual, real news about the Dems latest defeat at the hands of Republicans - but, ah well.
You’re really doing nothing, Mike, other than arguing against yourself. You do sound very confused; it seems you become emotional and panicked quite easily by your own very unique interpretations of “polls”.
That’s interesting, considering the subject matter here. I just don’t think you’re making a very good argument for folks to be in a tither because the Democrats feel they need to become even more the public emotional basketcases than they are currently.
Let a million Stark public psycho-ranting flowers grow, I say.
Go back and read the post…..absurd
geez I shouldnt have read those Meanie posts it’s infectious.
Disney had something to say about this a long time ago.
#51 mike volpe:
I think you are correct to insist that:
1) You can’t beat something with nothing;
2) You can’t defend yourself against an attack by a snarling wild beast by curling up into a ball, with an occasional useless flailing of your arms; and
3) The best defense is a good offense.
I wish the reps would put an end to this “Leftist Lite” persona they have been trying to craft.
The American public, steadily being dumbed down to the lowest common denominator, is not going to buy knock-offs in this case.
There ain’t gonna be any success with an approach like, “If you like the socialists (Democrats), you’re gonna love the Republicans.”
What about the part of the brain that is directly connected to your wallet?
What about the part of the brain that tingles when there’s an American Flag waving in the breeze, and a formation of B-2 Spirit bombers zooms over at 500ft.?
What about that part of the brain that gets angry when exposed to socialist public policy?
Do Democrat brains have these parts?
Did you check her latest at FireDog Lake (link in a post of mine above)? Hilarious, but not intentionally so.
This bit of her Bush-Hitler paranoid fantasy is great good humor:
“nothing legal — would prevent Bush today from declaring that the National Guard is overstretched and that it is Blackwater’s torturers and murderers, recruited from Salvadoran, Ecuadoran and Nigerian paramilitaries, who will be `maintaining order’ in the `public emergency’ that is Southern California”
Heh, heh, heh….
You got it.
Democrats have a pattern of looking for external reasons to explain why they don’t get what they want, when they want it.
- I’ve seen them argue that they’re too nice, and need to become more vicious (just like those mean Republicans).
- I’ve seen them argue that they need to come up with “magic words” instead of ordinary descriptors to make people give them what they want.
- I’ve seen them try relabeling themselves.
And now, I see one of them saying that they need to be more emotional in their appeals - just like those cynical, mean Republicans, of course.
Donkeys as a general rule aren’t very good at honest self-examination, because at some level they know they wouldn’t like what they’d find if they tried it. So when things go wrong - and this Congress has been a disaster for them in terms of proving themselves to be a serious party capable of governing - they resort to searching for circumstantial and environmental factors to explain why.
“When all you have is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail.” Just like if haven’t got logic, evidence and reasoned discourse on your side, but negative emotions to burn, you start seeing everything and everyone in negative emotional terms.
For any Democrat to claim that Republicans are beating them on an emotional level, and that the answer is to become even more emotional themselves, is breathtaking in its degree of monomaniacal self-delusion.
But it’s what I’ve come to expect from today’s Democrat Party.
#61 Regulus:
“- I’ve seen them argue that they’re too nice, and need to become more vicious (just like those mean Republicans).”
“And now, I see one of them saying that they need to be more emotional in their appeals - just like those cynical, mean Republicans, of course.”
Again: Projection!!
This onslaught of re-heated leftover legislative pressure by the Dhimmicrats on immigration and health-snare programs for badly budgeting diddle-class “working poor” families is a Smoke Screen.
The Speaker of the House is in deep doo-doo over her trip to Syria escorted by Congressman Tom Lantos.
It would appear that there is strong evidence the Speaker and Mr. Lantos behaved treasonously while there; and, the recent Armenian Genocide resolution against our crucial ally Turkey was the goods they have delivered to Assad.
There may be enough evidence to impeach Pelosi as speaker and try her for treason. She has not been on the news much. Nor has the genocide resolution been on the news.
What is at risk is a Turkish invasion of Northern Iraq and resciding access to the major air base we use to resupply and deploy troops in southern Turkey.
Just when we are beginning to clean house in Iraq.
One cannot use a brain one does not have.
My sole source of information is Tothepointnews.com. It is a paid site so there isn’t a link.
This is some grim stuff. Let’s see if the President has the gumbies to stand up or lose it all.
Whoops. My sole source of information on this story is Tothepointnews.com.
mike volpe—You make some excellent points about how the Libs manage to convince their constituents that this and their other loony-tune ideas are worth persuing.It is more disturbing that they are also able to covince people who aren’t usually interested in politics.
The Dems do make arguments that are effective among the people who respond to sound bites instead of their own research.The most effective advertising is that which appeals to the emotions,rather than logic,and this is what the Dems rely on.
From “it takes a village”to the Global Warming hypothesis their mechanism for gaining popular support has been misdirection.Instead of clear,logical debate(that they know they cannot win),they have to resort to obfiscation.”If you can’t blind them with brilliance,baffle them with bulls**t”.Now they are trying to convince the public that their emotion-based arguments are logical,and unfortunately,they’ll probably succeed.
I am not saying the Dems are right on policy. That isn’t the issue. In fact, it is that much more shameful that being so right on policy, the Reps are still getting crushed politically.
I make perfect sense. The numbers are overwhelming. The Reps are losing two to one in any poll. That means come November of 2008 every politician that votes against SCHIP will be labeled with the tag,war monger, heartless, and against poor kids.
Again, you can choose to believe this isn’t happening but that is because you are stuck in the right blogosphere echo chamber which believes some funny sounding word is the story when the story is that the Dems have out flanked the Reps on this issue politically.
The Dems have turned an atrocious policy into a huge political victory, and you are snickering at them. How about snickering at the Reps which allowed it.
“It takes a village”…. interesting example because most Moon Loons attribute that to Hillary Clinton.
In fact it is an Ibo traditional saying (Nigeria). But of course, anything that isn’t nailed down to the floor, a Clinton will steal for their own devices.
I’m right with you,mike.
Blues,
I will say it again. Emotional arguements gain the masses that is why this whole post from Michelle is really totally nonsensical. You can snicker at the funny sounding word, however the guy is right. You need to appeal to emotion. The reps have an emotional issue:corruption that can be appealed to if they chose to, but instead they allow the right blogosphere to fight their battles for them.
No one is out aggressively getting in front of the media to tell the Rep side of the story and right now the narrative is that the reps are heartless war mongers that can find money for an endless war but not for poor kids.
Thus, if you all want to snicker at this word, you can however you are then totally missing the point, and finding yourself in the category of the irrelevant on this debate.
I will focus on what is important and do my part to drive home the important part of the story.
Wasn’t that the siren song of the Dhimmicrats in the last Presidential election? Or for that matter in every election since Nixon’s run in 68?
As for the last midterm when the Dhimmis picked up their sliver majorities in Congress, was that because of the Republicans being “outflanked on issues”? Or was it in keeping with the midterm electoral trends?
Anything the Dhimmicrats do is aided by the MSM to the point that any attribution by pundits who say this is a “political victory” is like saying Johnny broke the pinata when in effect he used a sawed off shotgun.
Bottom line: there is a difference between grandstanding Dhimmicrats making political hay and decisive political victories of substance- such as winning the White House. The first quarter isn’t even half over.
Wow!
Looks like the Dems have hired on Bobby Bouchett as a strategist. Howard Dean and the Waterboy? A match made in, well, somewhere.
Maybe Bobby can help Howard out perfecting that scream. A “ree-a-Ree-a-REEEEE” instead of a “eeeeEEEEEEE-ah”. Of course, Howard can’t get into the physical contact end of things - that bad back and all that kept him out of Vietnam.
That really says it all, doesn’t it, uhangtight.
Mike: I agree that emotional appeals to the masses generally work.
Example: the family/faith-based platform in 2004 that wiped out Kerry.
The Repubs didn’t sell that to the secular media with their pro-homosexual agenda. They sold it to the people that matter: the American people who are thinking for themselves.
The warmonger-child hater tag the Dhimmis are using preaches to the choir and solidifies the Dhimmis extremist base. And it will make it very difficult for the Dhimmis to sell any kind of Centrist platform to voters they need to swing over to their side.
Let em preach. They still need to reach.
Most folks don’t bite on the “children” card like Lefty Moon Loons do.
If the Repubs can show how S-Chip will affect the tax bills of soccer mom families, as compared to the way the US is financing the war, all the emotional appeals in the world wont have any staying power.
The wild card in all of this is the Fair Tax (no I am not a Ron Paul fan-he seized onto the issue). If the Repubs can get behind that, it leaves the Dhimmis on the same side of the cannon barrel as they’ve always been regarding “tax and spend”. This is not the economy for this posturing.
Not arguing with you, Mike. Just saying that people buy in based on emotion, but then look for rationalizations to confirm it. The brain guy might be tossing his baby out with the bathwater.
bear-I know about the Ibo tradition,but I think you got my point,that is, it doesn’t take a village,it takes 2 responsible parents.Probably not the best example I could have used,but it was the one that popped into my head.
Kind of off topic,and I’ll probably come off as a heartless p***k,but in reference to the Frost accident,how did the children suffer such injuries in a one car accident sliding on black ice?No seat belts?Travelling to fast for conditions?
Before calling me to task about driving in bad road conditions etc.,let me say that I live in WPa.and have driven in all kinds of conditions.
Mike: I’m not so sure this is quite the victory you seem to think it is. Most working people (and admittedly that’s pretty much only who I talk to on an ongoing basis) see this whole SCHIP debate about taking money from their paycheck and giving it to somebody else. The polls might say otherwise - but given that all these workers are actually at work, the pollsters don’t actually ever talk to any of it’s them.
I do know that a) my sample is limited and b) purely anecdotal - but it’s what I see.
I do agree though with your basic premise that the leadership is not doing a very good job (any?) of putting forth an alternative. They stay on defense when they should be on offense.
mike,I wasn’t snickering,I agree with you.
bear, you are simply wrong. The public is with the Dems two to one on this issue. What is sad is when it gets into specific policy the public is for the Reps. What that means is that the Reps are getting taken to school in field of politicking on this issue.
Again, you all can pretend that this isn’t happening and snicker at the Dems, but all you are doing is enabling to leadership of the Reps by telling them their current strategy is effective.
Here is the latest I have written on this issue
I have a great deal of respect for Michelle and Ed Morrissey and the rest of the leaders of the right blogosphere but all I can say is that they way everyone on the blogosphere has covered and reacted to this story has done no one in the Republican party any favors. Our ire should be directed at the Republican leadership for allowing themselves to be outflanked by the hapless Dems on an issue they didn’t need to be losing on. They allowed, and everyone the blogosphere cheered them on while the polls came in, overwhelmingly for the Dems, and everyone just ignored the polls and went on with their rah rah to the Reps for standing up and snickering at the Dems for their dirty tricks.
Guess what, the Reps cannot merely stand up. They must present their side and do it effectively and the dirty tricks the Dems have pulled are effective.
Mike, I’d have to agree also that Republicans have done a terrible job getting their message out. If one did, they would be an instant front runner…
That said, it’s amusing that Dems think they need to be more emotional, no?
But yeah, though the MSM won’t make it easy for someone to cut through.
I think this is where the rubber meets the road; or, in the case of the Dhimmicrats, skids off of it into a big frickin ditch.
They like to think of themselves as the party of the People. You know, farmers market, rice and beans, giving everyone $5,000 per kid they squeeze out.
Go to their gatherings and they will have Marvin Gaye music playing, or Johnny Clegg or David “I’ve never even been to africa but I act like I have” Byrne music on the deck.
They are down with Darfur and use Bono as their conscience.
And of course, they have the passionate bloviator Al “Big Daddy Coal” Gore sweating up a storm screaming into a microphone like a Banana Republic petty dictator.
They have Sean “Not my real name” Penn and Susan “These are my boobs” Sarandon, Tim “I wasn’t pretending in Shawshank” Robbins to peddle their “emotional message” on the mistreatment of Muslims in Gitmo (Burp).
They have the Upper East Side Howard Dean acting like the big populist do*che bag, screaming into a microphone.
The list goes on and on.
And then there is PIAP Hillary Clinton. (PIAP stands for PORCINE IN A PANT SUIT in case you hadn’t seen that in print before; don’t know who to credit but it works for me.)-
Absolutely cutoff from her hollow emotional center.
Most healthy human beings have two internal languages not scripted by Hallmark Cards: the language of the heart and the language of the pysche.
The healthiest have a narrative that flows from the heart into the mind where logic and reason can filter out impulsivesin the heart narrative that can end up turning oneself into a Moon Loon.
As I see it, the Dhimmis and their Left cousins suffer from two maladies:
1) their impulses are superceding their survival instincts (kill the unborn versus procreate in order to sustain your lineage and your culture); and, their brains are not filtering these impulses- so they are woven into policies and laws and political platforms. Marc Steyn nails this in “America Alone”.
2) their “emotional appeal” is hollow because the logic is precluded by their own impulses being asserted as the message itself; which can only lead to them telling other people that these same impulses are their’s too- when in effect, the ones they want to reach have to use their brains to understand and then submit to the message of emotion.
A real emotional message speaks to common values (killing the unborn and killing incentives to keep medical care functional are not based on values- they are based on the absence of values).
Values carry the emotional DNA that brings about the power that keeps people voting down immigration shamnesty, backs the war against IslamoFascism, etc.
Emotional appeal is different from the appeal to sentiments, or feelings. The DDhimmis cannot by default appeal emotionally- they can only appeal to the sentiments of people in their camp who do not have core values based on basic survival. The core: marry, raise children, worship, build safe communities, and provide resources for the education of the next generation.
All of these things the Dhimmis attack with the power of the state- because they do not value survival. They value political power.
Even Hitler understood that his message had to come from the grist of what Germans BELIEVED in- family, work, and a strong state to protect them from their enemies. Values based in culture.
Culture is a means of survival, not a “lifestyle”.
The Dhimmicrats define themselves on who they are NOT.
They are, therefore, hollow in the middle and cannot define anything on emotional terms. They can be irrational- and they most certainly are on most issues. But that is not emotional strength. It is absurdity.
Rant off.
Where do you come up with the two to one ratio? Not saying it’s wrong - just I don’t know where it comes from.
Unfortunately, today’s public seems to be becoming so much more and more visual-, image-driven - as opposed to language-, hearing (radio)- and reading-driven.
I can appreciate what Mike is saying.
Just because we put subject in front of predicate in our discussions with one another here does not negate the fact that every voter’s vote counts as much as that of every one else; and that, to be successful, a message has to be repeatedly (and simply and clearly) presented to, and driven home to, as large an audience (even though the word is derived from “to listen”, not “to watch”!) as possible.
Perhaps Michelle should get a national TV news show so that these stories, and these types of discussions about these topics, and the degree of corruption of the leftists positions and arguments, can get on to national TV, and before a large, voting audience?
I think you can say this: the polls indicate that the “public” is with the Dems two to one on this issue.
I am not saying the Dems are not making political hay. And that is what a poll is giving them.
Why aren’t the phones and faxes ringing off the hook on the hill and the veto ovverride passing?
There is a disconnect Mike, that i don’[t think you are willing to look at, in order to be right.
I don’t need to be right. I am looking at the failed passage, the failed override and am DEDUCING that the Dhimmis DONT have the boots on the ground to slug this one out and get it passed.
The “polls” were saying the Nation was split on Shamnesty, yet, the Dhimmis got their butts kicked by boots on the ground that carried the vote.
The “polls” said Kerry was winning and Bush beat him.
I may be wrong in terms of what the polls say. I will concede that.
But the question remains: why can’t the Dhimmis pass anything they say the people want?
DUH, Mike.
sorry…leftists’
I come to the two to one ratio because the polling is 60% for SCHIP and just over 30% against. Again, maybe none of you have looked at the polling but you should so that you all understand just how much the Reps are getting crushed.
Again, all I read is snickering at the Dems. Keep snickering because they have found themselves a boon of political capital and every Rep that votes against this will have a plethora of commercials against them saying that while they happily supported a neverending war they couldn’t find the money to help poor kids.
Mike, take a breath.
You are reminding me of the thread on the Dhimmis refusing to debate on FOX News.
I’m not telling any Republican operatives that their strategy is working. And my divergent view from yours is not a snicker either.
Address the issue: if the Dhimmis have a 2:1 advantage among the public on this issue why can’t they override the veto?
Also, address this issue: if the MSM is backing the Dhimmis play on every issue on the table on the Hill, then how is the Republican leadership supposed to counter that with every sound byte edited to favor the Dhimmi position?
Also address: the creeping issues against the Dhimmicrat frontrunner and the Speaker of the House, and war in Iran- as these gain traction, how will domestic issues help the Dhimmicrats?
Scandal and war will trump domestic entitlement every time.
Reagan rarely, if ever, appealed to emotion. The libs will try to say that he did, but what Reagan really did was lay out the logical reasons behind his conservative beliefs. And then he won 49 states.
Reagan did several things that modern Republicans refuse or are unable to do:
1) He knew why he believed what he believed.
2) He articulated his beliefs in a way that people could understand (He could do that, in large part, because of #1)
3) He never, ever, attacked another Republican (the 11th Commandment).
4) He never appologized for being a conservative with phrases like “compassionate conservative.”
5) He didn’t manipulate or cajole, he just explained.
That is what we need. Not emotional arguments or fearing the masses. *cough* Newt *cough*
For the last few years Republicans have been afraid of what Americans would think of them, so they spent billions and billions of dollars trying to buy those voters off. They created new social programs and increased spending on old ones in hopes that it would make them look good. All that it wound up doing was helping to get them kicked out of office when people realized that the they were a bunch of hypocrites.
Democrat.PMS
This is your brain..period
I think a couple of us just pointed to the fallacy of some of the polling. I don’t disagree at all that the polls show something. Nor do I disagree with the statement that the Republicans are doing a lousy job of stating their case. I do however view the real political situation a little less dire than you do. I think it was Tip O’Neal who said - ultimately every election comes down to local (or some variation on that theme) and another (unknown to me) politician said people only vote their pocketbooks. If the latter is true, they won’t care if the Republicans are mean if they think the Dems will cost them more.
Well, Mike, i think you have beaten the pony in your mind senseless. But it is not an effective means for bringing people around to your point of view.
The burden of credibility re the polls is on you because you are basing your argument on them.
The reality of this is that the veto override did not pass. And any propaganda value from that pinned against the “never ending” war- as compared to all those Dhimmis who voted for the war, as long as it was bloodless i might add- is negligible.
Bottom line, the Dhimmis always squander their political capital. ALWAYS. Point of fact: the mid-term elections supposedly gave them a mandate.
Within 6 months, approval ratings in toilet. 20 points lower than Bush’s right now.
So, how does trotting out the kids help?
Have they solved the problem for the kids? Nope. They got beat.
Does the American public LIKE losers? nope. So at best, all this political capital they supposedly have generated will at best put them at break even.
You are overstating your position. Now go bury that horse you are beating to death.
Mike - again - you’re not making sense. I think it’s due an over-emotional (related to the story topic here) interpretation of some polling data which is in reality meaningless for any practical purposes.
You may be too young to remember when, months before the ‘88 election, Michael Dukasis was - as you term it -”crushing” - Geo HW Bush by 17 points. Getting worked up on a poll on a single issue with just over a year before election time makes zero sense. It makes even less sense when one knows how to dispassionately dissect polls and the methodology.
If this one issue & some polling about it is the biggest worry ya got, I’d say the Republicans are in great shape!
A question -
I have no idea what you’re talking about there. To which “funny sounding word” in the article are you refering? I had no trouble in understanding it. I think most folks here believe the article to be about just what it says: Dem advisors telling Dems they need to get more emotional. What do you think the article is about?
The whole article was funny itself with the Dems going on about how they think they need to sound even goofier. Maybe Stark hasn’t embarassed himself enough and wants to spend more time apologizing to America, the President and our troops.
As for right wing “echo chambers”; it sounds like is you’re spending way too much time reading DU & Kos and getting spun silly by their usual “special” rhetoric on any given poll. Resist the spin.
But, if you read the article, the biggest problem in your concern is blown to smithereens - not by the “right-wing noise machine”, “right wing blogs” or even “right wing echo chambers”. The biggest problem is the Democrats _themselves_ confess they are losing the public battle:
“Democrats are losing the battle for voters’ hearts because the party’s message lacks emotional appeal, according to a widely circulated critique of House Democratic communications strategy.”
I assume the Democrat Party has access to the poll(s) that have you worried.
The burden of credibiltiy. Fine, you want to pretend that every single poll is wrong including Gallup, Rasmussen and every other company that has polled SCHIP, you can pretend that is so. I haven’t beaten anything. It is really hard to make a different arguement in an echo chamber and that is what I am doing. You have no perspective besides the one that the right blogosphere has given you on this issue, so when I bring up polling you pretend as though it isn’t credible.
You want polls fine.
Here is one
Here is another
Here is yet another.
One last one
If you aren’t convinced let me know, and in my next post I will list about a hundred more just so I can make sure I have CREDIBILITY.
Ya think?
As I sez above, according to the article it’s the Democrats who quite openly confess they’re losing the public. Of course, to remedy that they really gotta go “emo”.
Mike:
You make some good points although I have seen some polls that the public is more or less split on this issue.
The problem is that the Republican will always be labeled heartless warmongers by the Dems and the press unless they cave in 100% on every issue. Republicans are used to this. The good news is that the MSM are gradually losing their grip on the flow of information and web sites such as this are useful in getting the message out, or at least countering the disinformation.
Close to 40% of the electorate will always vote Democrat and neither reason nor emotion will sway them. The question then is how can the 10 -15% be swayed that are needed to win? SCHIP is not the only issue that people will use to decide their vote and in fact was not even an issue until the Dems made it so. Allowing the Democrats to continue with their histrionics and become even more emotional will only help the Republicans
What I would like to know is how can the Reps get their message out more effectively on this issue? Just what should the Republican leadership be doing that it is not doing now?
Peep - I was trying to be diplomatic. Something I’m not especially good at
A strategist is paid to worry. The Dems aren’t losing the public on anything. The strategist is looking for ways to be more effective and our echo chamber is hyper analyzing his totally trivial words as if that matters, when every single poll that no one besides me wants to talk about has the Dems two to one against the reps.
Keep it up and make the right blogosphere completely irrelevant.
The Democratic Party used to be the party of national security and our forward projection into the outside world, while Republicans used to be notorious for their isolationism. All that changed with Vietnam, which traumatized the Democrats. If today’s Democrats were to shake off the defeatism that has infected and corroded them for the last 35 years, they would once more be a formidable force in American politics. Then, they would be in a very strong position to attack the Bush Administration’s handling of Iraq on incompetent planning, waste, profiteering and mismanagement. Instead, they have become Chicken Littles in facing Islamofascism. Instead of more emotion, they need more rationality, as well as a concerted effort to get in touch with what is really on our minds.
Can’t we just give liberals a medullaectomy?
It’s so funny that I just learned about the parts of the brain in my psychology course. I love the “Four Fs”: Fighting, fleeing, feeding, and mating.
polls are for losers …
Dewey vs Truman, Carter vs Reagan, Gore vs Bush, Kerry vs Bush … the list goes on and on …
I am 61 and have never gotten a single call for any kind of “poll” in my entire life … I am sure there are many millions just like me in that respect …
polls are like the weather … if you don’t like what they say wait a little bit and the polling sample will change and the poll will reflect a completely different opinion … just as the winds will change and the current weather will move on down the road and be replaced by something else …
I don’t … and won’t … live my life based on meaningless polls …
Show me that poll. I have found four and I am willing to find one hundred if necessary. Don’t claim you have polls without identifying them because you don’t. The public is not with the Reps on this issue. Period.
You have seen NO POLLS that say the public is split. What you have seen is the public is in favor of the Reps on policy which is true and makes the fact that the public is two to one for the Dems even more reprehensible.
Guess what when the public is presented with a poll that defines specific policy they like the policy of the Reps more, however they don’t know which party has which policy, all they know is the heartless Reps are against health insurance for little kids while they keep funding an endless and unnecessary war.
I wrote a piece explaining this phenomenon
a phenomenon in which the public likes the policy the Reps present but then trusts the Dems on the issue, and if all you choose to ignore that this phenomenon is actually happening, that is your business, but you contribute to the continued irrelevance of our side of the blogosphere when you do it.
Mike: Get off your poll fixation. I can make a poll to come up with ANY conclusion you want. If you want one that says Hitler was a fantastic leader, I’ll get you. If you want one to say he was the devil himself, I’ll get you one.
As a Republican, I agree with Mike Volpe’s reasoning as far as it stresses the need for the Republican Party leadership to find its way again, and then to communicate the same to the electorate.
But I wouldn’t go so far as to take that to mean that we have to try to match the Democrats in terms of appealing to emotions. That’s playing to their strength, not ours.
Are the Donkeys going to say that Republicans are a bunch of heartless, child-hating, woman-hating, minority-hating meanies in November of 2008? And corrupt, too? Of course they are. Even if they wouldn’t be demogoguing S-CHIP, then they’d find something else. Their base voters need this; everybody else has heard it so often, in election after election, that they’ve come to expect it.
We’re not going to change anybody’s mind by saying, “Hey, look! The Democrats are corrupt!” The only reaction that’s going to generate is, “Yeah, so what?”
- Barney Franks was corrupt, running a homosexual brothel from his home.
- William “Freeze-Dried” Jefferson is corrupt.
- Bill Clinton was corrupt and won the presidency twice.
- Hillary Clinton is corrupt, and will be the Democrat nominee for president.
- Marion Barry was corrupt, went to jail and got re-elected to his old job when he got out.
- Al Gore was corrupt, and won the Democrat nomination for president.
Ted Kennedy killed a woman by leaving her to die a slow, horrible death - then used his family’s name to escape justice. That’s corrupt.
So what?
Nobody cares that the Donkeys are corrupt. I can’t think of one who lost an election on that issue. Voters do care if Republicans are corrupt, or seem to be. Getting into a finger-pointing session of “Who’s corrupt?” is a sure-fire way to lose more Republican seats in Congress. Nothing more.
Republicans don’t win elections by talking or emoting. They win by showing. Want to win in 2008? Try these demonstrations:
- Build the fence along the Mexican border. Stop catering to illegals.
- Bring some troops home from in Iraq in 2008, but do so as a demonstration of growing success and confidence in victory, and not an admission of defeat and humiliation.
- Show some fiscal restraint in Congress. Refuse to socialize medicine. Use the veto pen when the Donkeys try to bloat the budget and raise taxes.
- Hold the line when it comes to things like preserving traditional ideas of marriage and the family.
- Keep our military strong. Support a strong national defense. Keep finding and killing terrorists overseas.
- Stand up for a strong and independent America when it comes to UN fecklessness and attempts to subvert our sovereignty through things like the Law of the Sea Treaty.
Do these things, and more, and three things will happen, all of them good:
1. The poll numbers will improve;
2. Republicans will begin to break out of the funk they’re in right now, and will start to send in money to the party coffers again; and
3. We can use that money to do things like ad buys to get around the “mainstream” media that’s little more than a megaphone for the Democrats.
The third point above is critical if we’re even going to hope to try to appeal to the electorate through anything other than deeds. But the deeds must come first.
I don’t “snicker” at the Donkeys; I laugh at them, with all the derision and contempt they have so ardently earned. But that doesn’t mean I’m blind to where Republicans are falling down themselves. Where Mike Volpe and I part ways is on the means to get the Republicans back on their feet again.
We need to play to our strengths, not theirs.
Guess what polls are scientific unlike the opinion gathered in the echo chamber of the blogosphere. First, I had no credibility and now I need to get off the polling even though it is unanimous and overwhelming.
Guess what, I think this bill is atrocious. I think that it would damage our country if we expanded SCHIP the way the Dems want. However, the atrociousness of the bill is peanuts compared to the way that the Reps have handled the issue politically.
You want to pretend that most of the public isn’t thinking that most reps are war mongers who care more about funding a never ending war than helping poor kids get health care, that is your business, however it won’t change that in fact it is so.
Every single person that has down played my polls has provided no polling.
Yes, please, find me a poll that says that Hitler was fantastic.
I didn’t find one poll I found four and if you want my next post will have a hundred and they will ALL say the same thing.
political group sponsored polls are manipulative in the way they phrase questions to better ensure the chances that they will get the results they want …
Further: Mike - since you seem to feel you have all the answers and the rest of us are dweebs…why don’t you run for office. You can do all the stuff which you find the current leadership to be either not doing or doing poorly. It’s easy to tell somebody else they are doing something wrong - now get off your butt and you do it right.
#98 DesertLover & #100 conservativesRus:
Reagrding polls, I’d recommend to you and the rest of the folks (as I did a week or two ago at another discussion) an episode of “Yes, Minister”, or “Yes, Prime Minister” (I don’t remember which), where a senior bureaucrat (Sir Humphrey) is explaining to a junior bureaucrat (Bernard) how the results of a poll depend on who is asking the questions.
Hilarious.
And correct!