Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Strategy to Dems: Appeal to emotions, not facts or reason

I know we discussed this before, but I can't seem to find it anywhere in my posts. Anywho, from Neal Boortz:
I really think that this is one of the big stories of the day. Maybe because it is something I've been saying for years ... about liberals, that is.

It looks like we have a high-powered brain scientist serving as the latest advisor to the Democratic party. Drew Westen conducted research which leads to his conclusion that politicians – liberal politicians -- should try and appeal to people's emotions, rather than bogging them down with data and facts.

Where did we first find out about this research? Why, at the ultra-left wing "Take Back America" convention, that's where. The study was presented by researcher, Drew Westen, a psychologist and brain researcher at Emory University in my hometown of Atlanta.

Here's the ironic part of his study. It sounds to me like Dr. Westen is basically telling democrats that their constituents are stupid. He is telling democrats to appeal to constituents' emotions because "it doesn't make sense to argue an issue using facts and figures ... or to count on voters to make choices based on sophisticated understandings of policy differences or procedures." And there you have it. Avoid the facts, just go right for the heart!

Dr. Westen is suggesting that manipulating a voter's emotions is better than boring them to tears with sophisticated understandings. "Sophisticated understandings? What's that? Sounds to me like just a phrase denoting basic worldly knowledge, or being an educated citizen. Mr. Westen says, "[The brain] prefers conclusions that are emotionally satisfying rather than conclusions that match the data."

Message to Democrats. Don't bore your constituents with facts. Just tell them whatever makes them comfortable, warm, happy and all fuzzy.

Hmmmmm .... Not boring constituents with facts. Does that sound at all like the global warming cultists? But, I digress ......

So what's a good politician to do? How about just scrapping all of the data and research on global warming, socialized healthcare, voting rights, government education ... what's the point? If I want to be a good liberal, I should just get up here and appeal to your emotions. Forget trying to actually understand an issue ... that would just be too complicated.

You know why this works for democrats, don't you? Because if their voters actually did the research into any liberal platform issues, they would realize that the Democrats are wrong. I've been telling you for years that liberals (that means Democrats) like to argue from the position of emotion and feelings rather than fact and logic. You'll find it in my book "The Terrible Truth About Liberals," and that's more than 10 years old! So let's all just sit back and listen while the "progressives" offer us their preachy little sound bites that play on your emotions and not your intellect.

The sad reality here is that Dr. Westen probably has this thing figured out pretty well.

I have always said that liberalism is a "feeling, not thinking" ideology, and now we have a psychologist confirming this.

Click to enlarge (picture, not brain...the liberal brain cannot be enlarged)