reaching voters

Summary

How did conservatives successfully define good government as limited government, fiscal responsibility as less government, and the common good as the private sector? The answer lies in the conservative movement’s ability to communicate their values and vision.  The author explores the impact of a long-term vision statement, and the lack of one, on the ability of conservatives and progressives to communicate effectively. The criteria for writing a vision statement are presented, as well as a proposed progressive vision statement, “We Are Progressives.” It is then compared to the conservative vision statement, “Republican Principles,” in a side-by-side format. The lesson to be learned from the rise of conservatism is that a “clearly defined and consistent philosophy” is important to the success of a political movement.

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Valdis Krebs explores the behavior of voters, focusing on how social knowledge greatly affects voter choice.  As he writes, "after controlling for personal attitudes and demographic membership, researchers found that the social networks, [which] voters are embedded in, exert powerful influences on their behavior."  This is related with two other models of voter behavior.  The first, the atomized model, has "the voting public [as] an aggregation of autonomous decision-makers, each making a decision based on personal rationale and/or emotion" while the second is the demographic voter, "here the voter is not viewed as isolated and autonomous, but as a member of a demographic group which can influence or predict the voter's choices."

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