At Blue Mass Group, Charley is trying to put a stop to the invective of the comments and recriminations flying back and forth between campaign supporters. I don’t have any grand way to resolve those tensions or any speaking authority to lay down any ground rules for political discussion, but I think he’s on to something. People are confusing quantity of campaign activism with quality of campaign activism. Yelling louder won’t convince any better.
Perhaps a rule of thumb we can all aspire to is to imagine the person who is most skeptical yet who could feasibly be persuaded - the marginal convert so to speak - and to craft an argument that will persuade her or him. I think I’ve noted before, if you want to see a master at this read Andrew Sullivan on gay marriage (less so his writing on foreign policy or the economy). Taking to account the sensibilities of persuadable homophobes is far more successful than throwing accusations of “bigot” toward those who oppose gay marriage, even though you’d be right on the merits.
The political campaigns and their supporters can use all the persuasive powers they can muster. I know that’s a fairly banal and noncontroversial statement. And yet….
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