I went to a Republican precinct convention today and got to hear several speeches. What struck me most was how effective one of the speakers was -- not because she was a good speaker per se, as her strong Chinese accent made that difficult at best for her, but because of her story. She had a fantastic story about why she was running and why she was a Republican. The story was so good that you didn't notice (except that I do notice such things, having taught rhetoric) that she never actually said anything about what she stands for and what she would do if elected.
Her opponent, on the other hand, made the stupid mistake of starting off his speech complaining. Now, he was right about his complaint -- but being right in an election isn't necessarily going to get you votes. But a good story will.
People need to understand that this is why Ronald Reagan was so effective -- he managed to combine being right with having a good story. Even if he did not always do right in office, he always said what was right and just and good. COmbined with a good story, that always wins. And it did.
If you want to run a bad campaign, combine being wrong with a bad story.
If you want to run a better campaign, combine being right with a bad story.
If you want to run a good campaign, combine being wrong with a good story.
If you want to run a great campaign, combine being right with a good story.
I'm still going to vote for Randy Dunning in the run-off election, because I like his idea of eliminating property taxes, but Angie Chen Button whooped him in her speech.
3 comments:
You are right, Troy. People always like a good story.
Narrative: the most successful information technology in the human repertoire, despite ill-founded claims to the contrary...
Perhaps that is why postmodernists/deconstructionists don't field a lot of candidates. ;-)
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