What works best in appealing to the American public?

[AgadorSparticus]

What works best in appealing to the American public?
I just don't think that the masses respond to logic anymore. I used to think that they respond to their sense of ethics but there is no ethics when the ends keep justifying the means for SO many.

I am now convinced that the majority of Americans vote with their emotions with absolutely no regard for facts, numbers, or sound reasoning. And on the emotional level, it doesn't even have to be on a higher plane. Reality TV, sensational news, etc. That is why sex and violence works. C'mon admit it. It works.

I ask this question because I am tired of the neocon's/republican's constant appeal to basic emotions and getting the result they want while we bang our heads on a brick wall and taking that logic route and getting nowhere. For example, bush's carefully crafted bravado. They have appealed to people's fears and have them grasping for whatever mirage of a hero they prop up.

Should we change our tactics and start appealing emotionally too? Maybe add it along with the facts? And even if we do change and start appealing to our pathos, would that be too much of a compromise on our ethics? And is it okay to be ethically "pure" and lose?

I recognize that we are all FAR better than this. I just wonder about Joe Public. And I question our methodology in getting through.

[tXr]

1. I vote pathos

mixed in with self-interest.

[eurolefty]

2. Appealing to emotions is not easy

Appealing to emotions takes a lot skill. If it's done in a wrong way it will backfire (Dean scream). Logic and ethics are much safer, but not as effective in short term.

[LiberalVoice]

4. I disagree...

To be quite honest the Media and Govt. have John Q. Public figured out like the back of their hand. The Dean scream would have not been a factor at all had it not been for the media playing it twenty thousand times a day and showing it in a negative light. Make no mistake the average american can be very easily swayed in their opinions because they don't really know much about anything.

I mean look at how easily commercials get people to buy shit they don't need. There are lines of people just waiting to pick up the next useless item to hang in their closet. Why? Because average people are sheep. Plain and simple.

[LiberalVoice]

3. emotions, passion

Real or imagined events will do just fine.

[Blayde Starrfyre]

5. "Repetition"

American people respond best to repetition. That's how Republicans get these outrageous lies to be accepted as truth. They use their control of the media to hammer home dubious claims until they are accepted. Look at all the baloney they have succeeded in promoting through repetition: Whitewater. Whitewater. Whitewater. Invented the Internet. Invented the Internet. Invented the Internet. Purple Hearts. Purple Hearts. Purple Hearts. Kerry won't defend America. Kerry won't defend America. Kerry won't defend America. Democrats should respond in kind: Net loss of jobs. Net loss of jobs. Net loss of jobs. Record deficit. Record deficit. Record deficit. Planes ordered to stand down on 9/11. Planes ordered to stand down on 9/11. Planes ordered to stand down on 9/11. No weapons of mass destruction. No weapons of mass destruction.

The problem is that Republicans have an advantage because their repetitions are lies, and therefore usually more interesting.

[LWolf]

6. I think a combination of all 3, plus

repetition, as another poster already mentioned.

Logic and ethos will win the day over lies, but you need to attach them to emotion to make people think about them. You get an instant reaction from emotion, and it sticks longer in the memory.

The constant repetition of a theme works too well, as the mass media has ably demonstrated. When it is repeated often enough, it becomes an automatic part of the public conscience, and people don't stop to question it or think about it.

[quaker bill]

7. Fear

and the repugs use it very well.

[John_H]

8. You're going to hate me for this

But we live in a country where the creators of Fear Factor have far more cultural impact than the creators of classical rhetoric. Think about it for a second. Somebody published a book proving the Da Vinci Codeis fiction. A higher percentage of Americans can tell you the entire cast of Titanic than can name ten members of the Senate. John King can call himself a journalist without the room breaking out in nervous chuckling. Ethos, Pathos, Logos? Shit, most people think Logos is what you tell your kids to play with when you need the TV to watch Americas Funniest Police Chases.

The three steps to persuasion, Dubya style:

1) Communicate your agenda as if you are explaining it to the studio audience of The View, which is to say speak in platitudes, bumper sticker slogans, and Walmart Brand sentiment. Call the legislation which creates a police state "The Patriot Act," and you can actually take votes away from your opponent by saying he wants to repeal it.

2) Rely on visual imagery for "pathos." Landing a plane on a boat beats explaining that a tactical but not strategic victory hands down.

3)create a conventional wisdom by repeating the above over and over and over.

Tell your English 101 TA to get back to Derrida. You're getting' the KKKarl Rove education.

[independentpiney]

9. Pathos in most cases

I just play populist redneck a lot of times without even mentioning Kerry around town. Go to the gas station, I'll start in with the gas prices, how someones getting rich and it sure ain't us, just the Saudis and big corporations. Same type thing at the diner or supermarket with whatever conversations I can get into. Get the anger up towards the misadministration, and let them think they're making up their own minds.

[GreenArrow]

10. Pie in the sky optimism

tempered with healthy side portions of fear and self righteousness.

[natrat]

11. stupid 20 second soundbites

like W is for wanker,weasil,wtf,wrong

[BiggJawn]

12. Pathos. Push their "hate buttons", tell them it's OK to hate...

Appeal to that dark place inside that secretly dislikes "uppity" minorities and wishes women would stay home and life was as depicted in "Ozzie and Harriet", not Ozzie and Sharon.

Gush Pflegmball and Mike Wiener do it like nobody else. Except maybe Karl Rove....