Thanks to my friend, and great author Linda Stowe, for bringing us today’s insights.
______________________________________
Republicans by Linda Stowe
I just finished the book, “Why We Did It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell” by Tim Miller, a well-known political operative. Political operatives are involved in political campaigns. Miller was a specialist in opposition research, the people who come up with the dirt on their candidate’s opponents.
Most political books are academic and big-picture in their approach. This is not that. ”Why We Did It“ is more granular. It is a fast-paced tell-all book about how and why the Republican Party came to be the party it is today, told in a gossipy tone that focuses on the people and their personal agendas. Most of them come off as sulky divas or shameless self-promoters. Few of them seem to have public service as their prime motivation.
Here is one incident among many described in the book: In 2012 Miller was working on Jon Huntsman’s presidential campaign. Huntsman was among a field of candidates vying for the Republican presidential nomination. Mitt Romney, who ultimately won the party’s nomination, was a prime target for opposition research. Through his myriad connections, Miller was lucky enough to come up with something Romney’s teenage son had shared with friends years before. During a 1983 family vacation, Romney and his family drove their van 12 hours from Massachusetts into Canada with the family dog, an Irish Setter named Seamus, in a carrier on the top of the van. The only reason Romney’s son mentioned the incident was that the dog developed diarrhea which flowed down over the back window of the vehicle. Seeing this, the kids alerted their dad, who stopped at a filling station to clean off the dog and the van. That done, the dog was loaded back into the carrier, and they finished their trip.
The story’s release during the campaign made national news headlines and even has its own entry in Wikipedia (Mitt Romney dog incident). Much was made of the incident by political opponents who were quick to judge as well as by supporters who found no problem with what happened.
Releasing this story did not prevent Romney from becoming the Republican presidential nominee, and it is unknown if the story had any part in his defeat by Barack Obama. But the story illustrates the power that emotions have in the perceptions of voters. It is likely that anyone reading this story will have an emotional reaction that may even affect how the reader feels about Mitt Romney. This is one example of how politicians sway voters. If voters cannot be persuaded using logic, they can be manipulated using their emotions.
Rebuplicans. By Linda Stowe.
