Storytelling
in Politics by Warren Bull
Image from Parker Johnson on Upsplash
Please
note this is not a blog about politics. Nothing here should be seen as
endorsing or opposing anyone mentioned.
Writing
is not the only activity where storytelling is important. Listening to Rachel
Maddow, a commentator on MSNBC reflect on the debates between the Democratic
presidential candidates, I was struck by her comment that the women candidates
told stories during the debates much more frequently than the men did.
Thanks
to my trusty Google, I found articles by Sarah Weber on https://www.quantifiedcommunications.com/ and Park Howell on https://businessofstory.com/ that addressed storytelling during the last presidential
election.
Sarah
Weber noted that in the last presidential campaign throughout the primary debates
the two candidates participated in, both used far more storytelling language
than the average politician.
However, Trump used, on the whole, nearly 30% more
storytelling than Clinton. While Trump’s use of
storytelling hovered in the high 90th percentile throughout the
primaries, Clinton’s was not as steady.
Regardless
of either candidate’s political position or qualifications for office, Trump’s
story has been clear and consistent throughout his campaign, while Clinton’s
has been harder to pin down.
Park
Howell noted
“Given the wacky election cycle we’re in, you
don’t have to look far for how the power of a good story can sway people. Even
reasonably intelligent ones. Whether you like him or not, Donald Trump is the
supreme storyteller running for office. He keeps it simple:
‘America was once great, but it has fallen
from greatness. Therefore, I’m going to make America great again.’
That’s it. The one, two, three punch the
Donald uses to incite voters, crowds and the occasional riot. Unfortunately, it
apparently doesn’t matter if he tells the truth or not. His story is winning.
[The political opinions expressed by the authors cited is not necessarily that
of the blogger citing them.]
Hillary, on the other hand, has no narrative.”
We all know the results of the election. Among
the current candidates I was struck by the personal revelations of three people
who are not at the very top of the polls.
From Politico
Mayor Pete Buttigieg
“As a military officer serving Don’t Ask
Don’t Tell and as an elected official in the state of Indiana when Mike Pence
was governor, at a certain point, when it came to professional setbacks, I had
to wondering whether just acknowledging who I was going to be the ultimate
career-ending professional setback,” he said.
It was a
historic moment: a candidate for president discussing coming out on the debate
stage.
But,
Buttigieg said, after he revealed that he was gay he was still re-elected by a
wide margin.
“What I
learned is trust can be reciprocated and part of how you can win, and deserve
to win, is to know what’s worth more to you than winning.”
Andrew
Yang
My father
grew up on a peanut farm in Asia with no floor, and now his son is running for
president. That is the immigration story that we have to be able to share with
the American people.
If you look
at our history, almost half of Fortune 500 companies were founded by either
immigrants or children of immigrants and rates of business formation are much
higher in immigration communities. We have to say to the American people,
immigrants are positive for our economic and social dynamism, and I would return
the level of legal immigration to the point it was in the Obama-Biden
administration.
Senator
Kamala Harris
Kamala Harris told about her experience with integrated
schools, even though she was born ten years after the Supreme Court ruled that
segregation of schools was unconstitutional. "There was a little girl in
California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and
she was bused to school every day, and that little girl was me," she said.
I
don’t know how important storytelling will be in winning the nomination or in
the presidential election but I think it will play an important role. What do
you think?
I agree. People respond to story-telling. I remember many a Sunday sermon that started with a story.
ReplyDeleteStories are powerful. We often take one story and apply it inappropriately in other situations.
ReplyDeleteOne example is the "welfare queen" stereotype; it's based on Ronald Reagan's true story of a woman named Linda Taylor, who went to prison for her extensive schemes.