3) Find out what makes your college kids tick … at least vis-a-vis politics. One of my daughters was enthusiastic for Hilary, though she didn’t get out and campaign. When I asked her to work for Deval, at first she said she would and then she backed down. Her excuse was: it would be hypocritical for her to campaign because her heart wasn’t in the election or into Deval. (What can we do in the future with that bit of information?)
4) I keep thinking that my own rhetorical skills could be sharper. I mean that in respect to argument and persuasion. I’d love to have some training session on how to listen, engage, and persuade (or use assumptions from the other person’s position to further my own argument). It would help me become a more thoughtful communicator. I want people to leave our interaction with a question, not with an even tighter conviction that they are right.
5) Finally, in my personal computer time I get a lot out of listening to Bloggingheads.tv, which very often presents two people with opposing views talking on a topic. I learned about Bloggingheads.tv from the NYTimes online site, which often links to a discussion. The discussion that is up now ( http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlo… ) is between two religious progressives who are asking what grassroots Democrats need to be doing now.
Margaret
Lexington
There was an article in the nyt sunday magazine on a new group of people who are scientifically testing different techniques, but I couldn’t find it. It was recent, maybe three or four weeks ago.
What I remember from the article is that face to face contact is far more effective in turning out voters than other techniques. Mail is only marginally effective, phone contact of no use at all. The article quoted Robert Cialdini, who is easy to find with google, and really good to check out even if you can’t find the article I saw.
But by far the best advice for campaigning and persuading is in the book “Orgianizing” by Si Kahn, He states the listening is the most important skill for an organizer–which in my (limited and in the distant past) experience is absolutely true.
Is to never give up, and try and give as much as you can to get the ultimate ‘get’ which is an agreement to vote, sign up to volunteer, or agree to a bankruptcy (my day job). You gotta convince people that is in their best interests to agree with you and that it is a way for you both to win mutually. Also be honest, don’t whitewash the shortcomings, but spin them in a positive light and focus on the ultimate goal which is the get.
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p>Canvassing for Barack in Iowa, I met a lot of Edwards/Biden/Richardson supporters, convinced them to make Barack their #2. I never bashed Hillary or his opponents, just focused on his positives and the unique qualities he brought to the race and the issues he would deliver on. Instead of saying “Hillary is pro-war and Barack is anti war”, I just said “Barack was against it from day one, never thought it was a good idea, he will end it”. Convinced a libertarian friend pissed about the healthcare bill and expanding government that the Democrats were committed to ending the deficits, did cut his taxes and would do so again, and that the law would take seven years and the parts he didn’t like could be fixed before then. Got him to switch his vote. Leave out the parts where you conflict, and emphasize the parts where you agree.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10…
The thing is, I used to ask why the Republicans had it easy, didn’t hit the roadblocks we did, when an older guy told me they’re not better, they just have a lot more money. I think we will find that the Dems spent a lot more money here in Mass than has been reported.
They have nearly complete domination of talk radio, total control of Fox News and at least half of the network news commentators.
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p>In addition, they have perfected taking any story they want to make CW and having all their people speaking of the same thing at the same time. To many, hearing something from many trusted sources means it is validated.
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p>We have nothing similar – and even with having the President and his platform, it has made getting our message out difficult. (An addition problem is that truth is often complex – lies can always be as simple as they are untrue.