I've been thinking lately about issues of communication. I find it amazing that so many smart people who do politics seem to not understand basic aspects of communication, in particular that different people have different perceptual filters. To often, it seems like we are trying to convince people to care about the issues we think are important, rather than listening and seeing what will resonate to convince them. Kyle Kulinski talked about this, but there is another example that I think illustrates this point.
Recently, freelance journalist Anya Paramil appeared on Fox News with Tucker Carlson. Most of us are not fans of Tucker or Fox News, but look closely at what happened. She clearly understands Tucker and his audience, and uses that to frame her arguments. Everything she said is true, but it's the way she framed it. She knows what these people care about and how to appeal to them, and I think many Fox viewers who watched this clip were won over. This is an example of the kind of thing we need to be doing.