How voters receive your message

When it gets right down to the brass tacks, nothing is more important in politics than how your message is received. Drew Westen's book The Political Brain is devoted to the role of emotion in determining the political life of the nation. Westen spoke at the recent leadership conference I attended in New Orleans. I'm looking forward to reading the book. During his address, he related five principles of effective campaign messaging:

(1) Tell coherent stories with memorable phrases;
(2) Control the stories that matter most;
(3) Emphasize your values;
(4) Know what networks you're activating;
(5) Go for the gut. Americans like someone willing to spend their political capital.

He believes Democrats are more apt to present 12-point plans, and he thinks voters couldn't care less about that. Republicans, on the other hand, have cornered the market on values voting. Westen believes there's a way to appeal to both emotions and reason, and he believes that because we're a story-telling species, voters are more tuned in to those types of campaigns rather than a list of facts that lack memorability. Westen says that Democrats have historically tried to appeal more to policy than values and says that if you don't define your values, your opponent will.

Westen cites two predictors of voting behavior: party affiliation and the appeal of individual candidates. 95% of voters, he believes, will vote for the candidate that shares their values, so long as they believe that person will perform the job honestly and competently. He goes out of the way to say that a campaign is far from a debate on the issues, as most candidates want it to be. A campaign, he says, is a set of stories embedded within a values-based, emotionally compelling, master narrative. In other words, an effective campaign moves voters.