MEANS OF COMMUNICATION: professor or preacher?

[yurbud]

This is something I noticed during the OJ trial, and as I thought back on my days when I was an Evangelical, it seemed to be consistent: stupid people only respect a forceful, unequivocal delivery of a message. Your sincerity is measured in decibels.

This was most obvious in the OJ trial closing arguments. Both attorneys were black, so it theoretically should have been a level playing field on that score. But the prosecutor sat on the edge of his table,and spoke in a calm professorial tone and painted a nuanced bittersweet portrait of a beloved celebrity he reluctantly concluded was guilty of murder. OJ's defense, Johnny Cochrane, used no such nuance. The police were racist, the evidence was tampered with, and/or ludicrous on the face of it, and the weaker his argument, the louder he shouted. The outcome fo that trial may have been a forgone conclusion, but it was obvious who the average joe would be inclined to believe.

The GOP does this well. For all their talk of Dems being elitists, the GOP uses hierarchy, rank, and the cadence and rhetoric of the preacher to gather their flock. When a right wing republican speaks, he sounds like their preacher, or increasingly like Rush Limbaugh.

Democrats speak to people as peers at best or at worst in mush-mouthed platitudes designed to be inoffensive. The first works with college educated audiences, the second works with no one.

This is partly why so many of us like Howard Dean. We might disagree with something he says or how he says it, but his way of communicating SOUNDS authentic and real, the way most of us talk everyday.

By contrast, most of the other democrats seem to design their statements to say nothing and I'm always suspicious that they have some backdoor deal they are trying to keep me from noticing, like the Bidens and Lieberman's of the party.

It would be nice if this authenticity came from conviction instead of being fabricated, and in this era of 24/7 TV, radio, and weblogs, it will be harder and harder to keep on the phony game face anyway. If democrats had a handful of values they won't compromise on, tell people that up front, and say in no uncertain terms when they think those values are being trampled (rather than trying to finesse the opposition) they would get more respect and therefore more votes.

And if you disagree with me, you're a paid DLC lurker hoping to graduate to being a corporate whore lobbyist (gee that feels authentic).


Hillbilly Hitler art:



Blog:

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. I disagree with you,

(Where is my check?)

Actually well put

[yurbud]

2. true believers only get a commerative mug

Hillbilly Hitler art:



Blog:

[babylonsister]

3. Makes sense to me; too bad treating them like equals

isn't embraced and appreciated by them.

[yurbud]

4. I agree--I prefer the collegial approach too, when I went to church...

and a preacher started shouting, I always wanted to leave, because he looked like a fucking idiot.

[FreedomAngel82]

5. Yep

I have more respect for someone who treats me as an equal and doesn't talk down to me and act like they're smarter or holier then I am. That's why I like people like Dean, Kerry, the Clinton's. I've noticed when I see a photo of Kerry with kids he's always down at their level and talking to them that way. He's not looking down at them or anything like that but treating them like the person they are and he levels with them. And you're right that the republican politicians act like they're preachers. If I wanted to be preached to I'd go to church (luckily my preacher doesn't shout or anything like that heh heh).