Recap of Democracy Salöôn

By Maura H. - February 25, 2023

Chapter members talking.

We started with a round-robin check-in, expanding loving kindness to the 2nd-tier awful people: May you be filled with loving kindness, may you be well, may you be peaceful and at ease, may you be happy.

Then we got right into why we are here. We have the power to persuade people. This is a transactional endeavor, we want to persuade voters, and we also want to widen our circle. We approach with empathy and determine who is or is not persuadable, giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Instead of talking down to people who don’t see eye-to-eye with us, we could really look at them as victims of dis-information. This week, we learned from the texts exposed in the Fox-Dominion lawsuit that the HOSTS don’t believe their lies, and that it’s all about Fox ratings and the Fox stock price. We could be able to give Fox viewers empathy because they have been lied to and preyed upon.

In the 2020 election, we saw that 80 million people voted for Trump even after enduring his presidency for four years. We thought this has to be racism and focused our first thought leadership initiative on learning more about how racism affects our country. After the midterms in 2022, we are just now learning more about who turned out to vote. GOP turnout was up, Dem turnout down. A lot of our folks stayed home. We think we need to bring more people in. We think we need to create a wider base and not write people off.

The right is embracing a politics of grievance, but maybe we need to have empathy for what that's about. The right is plagued with conspiracy theories. Conspiracy beliefs have been linked with decreased mental and physical illness, but it's not clear which comes first. We saw one recent conspiracy theory floating around that liberals conspired to persuade Trump voters not to get vaccinated so they would die. Maybe some on the right are beginning to see that their conspiracy theories are unhealthy?

We viewed a video on the practice of deep canvassing. In this edited video, a gay canvasser is talking to an initially skeptical voter about a measure to protect transgender rights. The canvasser responds with empathy to the voter's initial somewhat leery response, then asks if the voter knows anyone who is transgender. He doesn't judge and is very empathetic, and, through a process of empathetic exploration of the voter's values and experiences, moves her to full support of the measure. We learned in our Camp Obama days to lead with our personal story, so this technique resonates deeply with us. (A later chapter in The Persuaders reviews several deep canvassing transactions point-by-point, so we will return to this technique.)

After discussing the Prologue and Chapter 1 of The Persuaders, we moved on to several practice scenarios, focusing on the opening response where we try to lead with empathy, even though our immediate desire is to try to tell the other person why he or she is wrong.

Scenario 1 (talking to Trump-embracing family):

Family says: "Why didn't Biden come to East Palestine, OH instead of going to Ukraine?"

We don't say: "The EPA was there right away... yadda yadda yadda, you're wrong."

We try to say: "Yeah, it's great when we can rely on the government to help us out when there's a disaster." (Build empathy about the situation first, go to the value that she wants the government to help her, which we support, and then talk about how effective government and strong government regulations can help in this situation.)

Scenario 2 (talking to a voter to encourage voting for a candidate):

Voter says: "I can't vote for her if she supports abortion. I can’t support abortion on demand. Having an abortion up to the moment of birth makes me sick."

We try to say: "Really taking care of people is important. Having the best possible care for both mother and child is so important." Move into asking if voter has ever known someone having a miscarriage. Then move to a personal story about women not being able to get medical care they need because of abortion restrictions. Then move to candidate's positions on the issue."

Scenario 3 (talking to a voter):

Voter says: "I'm worried about voter fraud. I think it's perfectly OK to ask people to supply an ID to vote. It's common sense."

We try to say: "It's so important that everyone who is eligible has a chance to vote. Do you know anyone who has ever had trouble being able to vote?" Tell a personal story about people who can't get ID because there's no DMV close by and they don't have a car or much money, so if there's a voter ID law, they can't vote. (Many young people have a harder time trying to be able to cast their ballots.)

Feedback on Salöôn:

Start with an exercise to identify shared values when people say things we disagree with.

More practice next time.

Remember to lead with empathy!

Next Meeting: Saturday, March 18th from 2:00 - 3:30 PM PT.