A psychologist recently visited the Democratic caucus. (No, this isn’t the first line of a joke.) Congressional Quarterly reports that retiring Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan (N.D.) recently brought psychologist Drew Westen in to see the Democratic caucus, because Dorgan is convinced that the Democrats’ problem is one of messaging.
Dr. Westen told the Democrats that they need to strike a more populist chord, explaining that the best way to win over voters is to use simple language that engages the brain’s “frontal emotion circuits.” In other words, since reason can’t provide much help in defending the Democrat’s policies, perhaps emotion can. CQ reports that the Democrats gave Dr. Westen a round of applause and have started taking his advice. “They realized,” Westen says of the party leadership, “the importance of speaking with a clear voice to the anger of the average American.”
Taking the psychologist’s advice, perhaps the Democrats should say, “We know you’re angry that we passed Obamacare in direct defiance of your will. We know you’re angry that this Congress and this president have racked up more deficit spending in two years than President Bush and the previous four Congresses — hardly models of frugality in their own right — did in eight. We feel your pain. We understand your anger. So please vote for us.” I don’t know whether that would engage “frontal emotion circuits,” but it would certainly qualify as speaking with a clear voice to voters’ anger.
