preview

Rhetoric That Matters

Decent Essays

The One Thing That Matters In An Election Is The Hardest One.

It is one thing to sit across a table and make an eloquent case on what you have to offer and quite another to make the person sitting across you to move to your side, pick a pen and sign a contract.

Yes, you can make it easier - send the contract their way and offer a pen. Still, their act of signing the document is a low odds one.

That is why election rhetoric puzzles me. The time spent on the act with the lowest conversion odds is just one line at the end….”don’t boo, do vote” or variations of that.

What can be done differently?

Granted, some voters are inherently motivated by their sense of civic duty, some by their sense of identity and some by their ideology. …show more content…

The power of stories always stuck with me.

Candidates understand that, many start the eloquent narratives with emotionally stirring stories. Yet, I did not find any for the lowest probability act – persuading people to leave home, go to a polling booth and cast a vote.

I waded through the video clippings and even newspaper articles by famous journalist before the recent Brexit referendum [where a higher millennial turnout could have turned the decision]. I did not find persuasive stories – just facts and one-line urges.

I wish stories like the one below take center stage.

The frogs wanted a king. God tossed a log into their pond. At first the frogs feared the log -- it looked so big and made a splash. Once they figured out the stillness of the log, they squatted down on it and wanted an active king. This time, they got an eel. The eel was active, good-natured, easygoing fellow - but a so-so ruler. So they wanted one who was a real, real ruler. They got a stork. The stork was active and purposeful. Every day he swallowed up a few frogs. That included the frogs who stood on the sidelines – without ever making a case one way or

Get Access