Irrational voters -- part two

Today's book of the week (if that makes sense) is "The Political Brain" by Drew Westen - a psychology professor and frustrated Democrat from Emory University in Georgia -- an an attempt to explain why Americans keep voting Republican when it doesn't seem to be in their interests to do so.  I had wanted to read this for a long time once I saw in the Economist review that the book was much sought after by both Presidential candidates and Gordon Brown's team...

It seems that despite the fact that Bill Clinton is the poster Democrat for Westen, he may not have given the book to Hillary as a Christmas present. The key thesis is that people decide on emotions not issues -- and no point trying to convince voters with facts, arguments, evidence.  More theses: the need to take on "difficult issues" not avoid them; the need not to cede values to your opponents; the importance of "curb appeal" in selecting candidates.  And an awful lot of examples of how successive Democrats - Dukakis, Gore, Kerry have been out Atwatered and outRoved to the White House.  And it suggests that my Edwards/ Obama supporting friends might just be onto something..

So does any of this have any application here... I am sure we would not be too surprised by the result that people go with their feelings and are not convinced by reams of statistics.  And some  very interesting stuff on the politics of the "war on terror".  But some of the most interesting stuff is on the need to use the right frames to discuss issues -- with a lot of cross references to Republican pollster Frank Luntz's "Words that Work" (for those of you who don't remember Frank Luntz he is the guy who pops up on Newsnight, looking as though he has come via Krispy Kreme and whose focus group during the Tory conference gave David Cameron leadership momentum (and who would have heralded a John Reid Premiership if Labour had reacted in the same way)).

According to the "Words that Work" thesis, "protecting the environment" would do nothing for the average American voter and "global warming" even less.  Much more complimentary about Al Gore's reframing to "climate crisis" in his Oscar wining movie. The book is also very critical of the Democrat consultants (the real villain of the piece) warning Gore off talking about the environment in 2000.  But I am not sure that they even bothered to market test "sustainable development" - but not sure it would have scored very high as a gut appeal that would have people rushing to the polls.   

But apart from reading this have also just finished Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold in Spanish -- which was all fine EXCEPT I just can't work out what the end of the story with the non-virginal bride was... to save me re-reading in English, if anyone would like to explain this to me, would be very welcome. Otherwise weekend has been an orgy of televised sport from round the world -- golf from Arizona, tennis from Qatar, cricket from Christchurch and Sydney --but the implausible drubbing of the French in the Stade de France probably the highlight.. Spanish teacher has asked me to write a poem this week -- which will require a level of creativity not seen since I was fifteen. Or I just ask a niece for a link to a GCSE homework website. Have only agreed to do this in the basis that next week I get to do a Spanish version of a climate change presentation.