Persuasion Class Day Two

I spent the day studying Aristotle, watching and analyzing the film classic "12 angry men," and learning new greek words of Rhetoric.

I spent my break looking for 4 year old birthday party favors, my walk home buying birthday candles and my time after class making muffins for preschool tomorrow.

I'm a double agent and noone knows it. Wow, I just skimmed the journal I wrote yesterday for class and it was a big bag of wind. Bluch. This is going to be challenging because I find that this is the first class that has that narrow washington political view that drove me crazy as an undergrad public policy major. Two dramatic moments in class, though. One was where a student from South Africa berated the professor for not using enough international examples. GO got somewhat defensive at first and actually, I think, somewhat justifiably questioned the student's comments that he has no desire to learn anything about American politics. Uh, he basically asked, then why are you here? But perhaps the K school advertises itself as more international in scope. The prof eventually got out of his defensive mode and there were a little bit of humble pie - but not a lot. It is a tough question. The issue really is that there should be more real "people's" public policy schools all over the world. The second funny thing was when a German student (love that stereotypical German straightforwardness) questioned the prof about all of the namedropping he had done the day before (being friends/advisor to Clinton, Gore, etc.) when it was salient, and, apparently in German culture, is taboo.

JOURNAL FOR CLASS
I was probably most struck by a the Gardner quote that "Narratives are the most powerful currency of persuasion." I'm studying this issue now with low-wage workers at Harvard in their efforts to build their union, and this is exactly what I'm finding in my research.

In the targeting strategies in persuasion, I was very struck by the "no effort" decision in using persuasion capital in the "uncommitted and uninvolved." While it was presented as a short-term/immediate strategy, I am confused because I thought persuasion is done through repetition and takes time - like Lincoln taking 4 years on the slavery question. Yes, it does take education, but it also takes "knowing thy audience" with this group - specifically, I am referring to the general example of the Democrats strategy, or lack thereof, with the vast majority of non-voters - marginalized groups - people of color, working class, working poor, etc. Rather than putting out efforts to organize folks who are so quickly written off, I wonder if they just see them as unapproachable b/c the Dems have moved so far to the right that they would have to re-examine their platform and message in order to truly reach out (which sounds patronizing) to the disenfranchised, which I don't always think is by choice. So, no wonder the Insurance Industry of America, during the health care debate, targetted the middle class and not the poor or elderly, per se - that is the vast majority of voters. The democrats have had an opportunity to do grassroots organizing/strategies, much like the Republicans have done in the past (which much success) and have, instead, when it comes down to the wire, have gone toward TV ads.

As an example, when I was living in North Carolina, Harvey Gant, a black Charlote mayor, was challenging incumbent Jesse Helms. Initially, the demcratic party said that they would put organizers in every 100 NC counties to get out the vote. Instead, they backed out of this plan and defaulted to the quick and easy TV ad campaign. At the last minute, Helms pulled out all of the stops and aired that nasty racist TV ad about black people taking white folks' jobs. (just like the simple, effective messages of the powerful of Harry and Louise). When you are just targetting middle class folks, persuasion is much more simple than building coalitions, especially inclusive of the poor and people of color. When the latter happens, how do you follow the persuasion principles when speaking to a national audience. Perhaps this is why everyone targets middle class voters and ignores the poor - long and short term strategies are necessary, and if it weren't for Howard Dean focusing on the unwinnable states, I would say noone in the Democratic party is open to this concept (though Dean has is own limitations).

Overall, I'm finding it a lot easier to analyze the nuances of the persuasion principles, especially how race, class and gender fits in, rather than do much self-reflection.

So what about me?

I also found the self-analysis around likeability very compelling. I used this technique immediately after class by talking to my mom, and it seemed to make both of us happier (not being judgemental, listening to her, etc., validating her suggestions). When I encounter friends and colleagues, and they ask me how I'm doing I almost always say something bad that's happening in my life - maybe I just want sympathy, but my usual comment now is usually one of the following: Ok, but I was up late working on a paper and Kalian woke me up at 5 am again or the last few days when folks asked me how my break was I said something like, "not so great - had to work on papers over the holidays and then i got sick last week." Yes, all of this is true, but it is a pattern, and I'm wondering if I wasn't so focused on myself and listened more to other folks that I could open more doors, so to speak, in persuasion and other ways to enhance my personal and political relationships. My other tendancy, probably related to this, is to relate back everything in a conversation back to me or my experiences - oh, and to interrupt. Well, there you go again, that's the negative....

"Hi, I'm so excited to be in this class today. How was your break?"

"Uh, huh, and how did that feel for you?"

"How are you feeling about your class?"

"Really? That sounds exciting. Take care, see you later."

Stay tuned for my then opening the door to persuade everyone to come babysit my kids....