Suppose you have a lot of skeptics who are doubtful about your commitment to something they personally support. Some of them may even be afraid that you will try to take that something away from them or at least put more and more limits on it.
You want to win them over, calm their fears, dispel their doubts, and convince them that you understand their concern and conviction. You want to win their support. What do you do?
Option A. Express your commitment to hearing their side of the story and to their rights and freedoms as individuals. Perhaps declare that although you and they do not agree on everything, you understand their concern about the something. You are for them as citizens and people. Say that you support their rights, especially those stated in the Constitution.
Option B. Tell your doubters that even if you wanted to take away their something, you don't have enough votes in Congress to do it anyway. Then tell your skeptics that their concern about you and their something can't possibly be the reason they don't support you.
OK, class. Which is the wrong answer? Because the wrong answer is sure to harden the skeptics' doubt and maybe even increase their antagonism.
Obamessiah was recently talking to some skeptical Pennsylvania citizens about the right to own firearms. Guess which option he picked.
Here is the quote:
How'd that work out for you, Senator? Did this extraordinary utterance magically turn the doubters into supporters? No? Quelle surprise.“If you’ve got a gun in your house, I’m not taking it,’’ Obama said. But the Illinois senator could still see skeptics in the crowd, particularly on the faces of several men at the back of the room.
So he tried again. “Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress,’’ he said. “This can’t be the reason not to vote for me. Can everyone hear me in the back? I see a couple of sportsmen back there. I’m not going to take away your guns.’’
*MM throws up her hands.*
Is Obamessiah beginning to crack under the pressure?
2 comments:
A much needed lesson on rhetoric across the board (e.g. for the right, abortion rights).
I'm hoping the Democratic Party, and if we're lucky the whole left wing of the US, is beginning to crack under the pressure.
Everything is hunky dory as long as we are talking about things that we are transcending and are now too petty to demand much attention. But this doggone idea of asking a politician, even one living on manna and honey mead, how he plans on supporting and defending that old tired relic of dead white guys, the Constitution. And obviously we have absolutely no understanding of the millenial opportunity we have been given to be so crass as to ask how the senator plans on filling the potholes?
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