politicalmessaging

Psychologists’ research has found that it’s not the nuances of policy debates that drive voter behavior but instead how voters feel about candidates and political parties -- and whom they trust to share their values. Drew Westen, PhD, of Emory University, talks about how emotions drive our political behavior, what makes for an effective political speech or ad campaign, and what role political messaging may be playing in shaping our increasingly polarized public discourse. 

 

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Drew Westen, PhD

 

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Rory going viral, Alastair's trip to Portugal, Labour's Brexit position, Olaf Scholz, the UEFA Champions League Final, the 1922 Committee, charisma, Nelson Mandela, teaching politics in school, US gun control, and ABBA. Tune in to today's pod to hear all this and more! ANNOUNCEMENT: Make sure you come back tomorrow for our first episode of 'TRIP: Question Time' (in the same podcast feed), where Alastair and Rory will devote a whole show to answering more listener questions and recounting some incredible stories from their time in politics. Instagram: @restispolitics Twitter: @RestIsPolitics Email: restispolitics@gmail.com Producer: Dom Johnson Exec Producers: Tony Pastor & Jack Davenport The Week: theweek.co.uk/rest Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Donald Trump has built his presidency on top of racial dog whistles, xenophobic rhetoric, and anti-immigrant policies. A core belief among liberals was that this strategy would help Trump with whites but almost certainly hurt him with Latinos, and people of color more broadly. Then the opposite happened: In 2020, Trump gained considerable support among voters of color, particularly Latinos, relative to the 2016 election. What happened? Ian Haney López is a legal scholar at UC Berkeley and the author of Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class. In 2017, he partnered with the leftist think tank Demos and various polling groups to better understand the effectiveness of racial dog whistles and how Democrats could combat them. The results were sobering, even to the experts who commissioned the polls. As Haney López documented in his 2019 book Merge Left: Fusing Race and Class, Winning Elections, and Saving America, 60 percent of Latinos and 54 percent of African Americans have found Trumpian dog-whistle messages convincing, right in step with the 61 percent of whites who did. This conversation is about the complicated reality of racial politics in America. It’s about the fact that the electorate isn’t divided into racists and non-racists — most voters, including Trump supporters, toggle back and forth between racially reactionary and racially egalitarian views — and a more robust theory of how race operates in American politics that follows. And it’s about the kinds of race- and class-conscious messages that Haney López’s research suggests work best with voters of all backgrounds. Book recommendations: Racial Realignment:The Transformation of American Liberalism, 1932–1965 by Eric Schickler The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú Born a Crime by Trevor Noah  Credits: Producer/Audio engineer - Jeff Geld Researcher - Roge Karma Please consider making a contribution to Vox to support this show: bit.ly/givepodcasts Your support will help us keep having ambitious conversations about big ideas. New to the show? Want to check out Ezra’s favorite episodes? Check out the Ezra Klein Show beginner’s guide (http://bit.ly/EKSbeginhere) Want to contact the show? Reach out at ezrakleinshow@vox.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices