The Persuaders: at the frontlines of the fight for hearts, minds, and democracy

Anand Giridharadas 2022

Book Review by Ray Herrmann

The book starts with a story about the Russian "Internet Research Agency (IRA) in St. Petersburg, Russia, which was founded in 2013 with the purpose of sowing distrust in government and division amongst Americans. They hired hundreds of writers and programmers whose job was to write fictitious articles, managing numerous fake accounts and avatars each (reportedly three Facebook posts /day or 50 posts /day on Twitter). A few years later, they would attract 76 million Facebook engagements and 183 million likes on Instagram along with 10 million tweets. The idea was that a rising disgust in each other would drive Americans apart.

The IRA had cloned a twitter account for the real Crystal Johnson, using the handle @Crystal1Johnson and began sending out far left taunts that rose to almost 4 million repostings. Then the IRA trolls developed a character named Jenna Abrams (10th most re-tweeted account) to spew far right views. The point being to turn political disagreements into conflicts over identity as in: These people are not to be trusted and are a risk to your being. Thereby, the IRA used amplification of existing differences to drive Americans father apart. Resulting in many Americans growing alienated from an idea at the heart of democratic theory: that you change things by changing minds - by persuading

The book goes on to tell stories of various organizers and their efforts to align people with different issues. There are two parts of extreme interest. The first is the story of the life of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who recently was elected to represent part of NY in the U.S. House and has been branded by the far right. The second interesting part is the story of the life of Anat Shenker-Osorio, a strategic communications consultant who is expert in messaging for effectiveness.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:

The author spends a long chapter (ch4) telling the life story of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), apparently gleaned from personal interviews. Alexandria was born to struggling Puerto Rican parents in the Bronx. She spoke only Spanish until learning English in pre-school. By age 5, she was already "precociously political".
    Her parents borrowed money from relatives and worked extra hard to get a place in nearby, affluent Yorktown Heights so Alexandria could get a better education (Dad was an architect designing houses in the Bronx, mom was a maid). Her dad stayed in the poor Bronx, while her mom moved to affluent Yorktown Heights. Alexandria spent the weekends in the Bronx, so she was able to notice the stark differences between schools and even the air.
   Alexandria helped her mom with her cleaning duties in Yorktown Heights, including washing the toilets of the rich (a brown girl in a white town). Her dad died of lung cancer at age 48, and while dying he told Alexandria "Make me Proud", a thought that has since motivated her.
    In 2007, Alexandria started Boston University majoring in biochemistry but later changed her major to economics and international relations. She spent a semester of her junior year in Niger working at a maternity clinic. After college, when her mom was having financial difficulties, Alexandria got a job as a waitress in a bar/restaurant to help out. For a while she became a teacher in the Bronx of 6, 7, & 8th grades. Later, Alexandria helped people write speeches, by asking them questions and putting their thoughts in order. In 2016, she worked as an organizer for Bernie Sanders campaign.
    Alexandria was able to frame controversial issues in a way that exposed the fallacies and pointed to a reasonable resolution. For example: In a PBS interview with Steve Inskeep, she was accused of calling for the abolishment of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Alexandria explained that ICE was only created in 2003 as part of the Patriot Act, which had been prompted by the War of Terror and was filled with questionable infringements on civil liberties. She pointed out that before ICE, there was the Immigration and Naturalization Services, which, before 1999, did not involve criminalization at all. So she was actually calling for a return to reasonableness.
    One of her biggest surprises came when future Congresswoman Alexandria attended an "orientation" meeting at Harvard University for all (60) new members of congress. It featured speakers from the business community, including the CEO of Goldman Sachs but it had no representatives for Labor in the mix. Speakers praised the Trump Tax Cuts and said how bad a $15 minimum wage would be. Alexandria responded by tweeting these proceedings to her followers.
    Near the "bipartisan" meeting's end, after a big dinner, everyone was expected to introduce themselves. Most just praised bipartisanship and stated they were looking forward to reaching across the isle, but there was no mention of issues. Alexandria was the last member to speak (coincidently) and said (unplanned) "I'm looking forward to working with everybody but I'm less of a believer in bipartisanship, and I'm more of a believer in common ground. And so I'm hoping to find common ground in expanding people's healthcare and their wages etc. because bipartisanship got us war. It has gotten us tax cuts for the rich." …There was silence.
    Above are two great examples of how Alexandria handles herself and is why she is so feared by conservatives. On January 3, 2019, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was sworn in as a Congresswoman. That same week, in a 60 Minutes interview, she suggested taxing those who make over $10 million /year at a rate of 70%. Her statement exploded in the news and The Guardian wrote: "She as realized what the Republicans have known for a long time: if people are talking about your agenda, even if they're talking about how bad and silly it is, you are making that agenda more plausible."
    Later, AOC told the Business Insider "When millennials talk about concepts like democratic socialism, we're not talking about these kinds of 'Red Scare' boogeyman, we're talking about countries and systems that already exist that have already been proven to be successful in the modern world."
    Explaining herself, Alexandria said "I don't compromise on my values, but I'm willing to compromise in how we get there". Her attitude is: "if I was attached to my seat, if I was attached to future political possibility, I would not be able to say the things I say, and I would not be able to hold our own party accountable." And "The thing that has given me the greatest sense of power is not letting people have power over me."
    After hearing a lot of claims about AOC on the news, I had thought of her as kind of radical, but now, after reading of her many exploits and comments, I have come to see her as quite reasonable.(rh)

Anat Shenker-Osorio and The Art of Messaging:

Anat Shenker-Osorio (ch5) is a very talented strategic communications consultant who has been developing messaging guides, digital ads and strategy for local activist groups. Below are some of the many ideas by Anat Shenker-Osorio:

• "You need to have the conversation you want, not one your opponent wants." [Example: If you're talking about Law and Order, by saying "rioting" or "looting" you are reinforcing what they're saying. You are never going to win on someone else's conversational terrain. Instead speak of "justice" and "dignity".]
• Avoid negative demands [like: abolish ICE or: end deportation ] because they put demands on what you don't want. Say what you're for. Additionally, many Democrat messages boil down to Boy have I got a problem for you! or We lost recently so you should join us. Most progressive messaging follows a familiar order: lead with problems, move to a solution, and end with a call to action. But Americans got 99 problems and they don't want yours.
• Right wingers excel at making provocations they know will cause the left to engage in days of outrage parroting.
• Don't play on fear to change people's minds. Because when you are terrified, you cling to what you know.
• Repetition works …more familiar messages seem more convincing.
• President Biden's selling of his achievements as "Bipartisan Infrastructure Law" was wrong in that by using "Bipartisan" he was showing a willingness to campaign for the opposition.
• The biggest mistake Democrats make is trying to appease the middle. For a long while Democrats had been trying to reach out to moderates and Republicans by tempering their ideas as much as possible, but Moderates are not in the middle, they are confused, torn between poles. [Example: If you are undecided between wanting a pizza of a burger, do not offer you a pizzaburger. Pick one and go with it.] Democrats act like pizza sellers who pivot to pizzaburgers to woo burger lovers and end up alienating their existing customers while gaining few new ones. Abandon catering to the opposition because they are never going to change and encourage the middle by drumming up excitement in your base.
      The author sums it: "Don't dilute the vision to reach out to a middle that isn't in the middle but is confused. Thrill your base but alienate the people who aren't going to vote for you anyway …Don't be afraid to callout, to woo the right people and to drive away the right people.

Anat has saying: "Sell the brownie, not the recipe." She has very good communication ideas. So anyone involved in persuasion should contact her.

Finally:

The author goes on to observe some political canvassers and sums up their best approach (expected to take 15 to 30 minutes) as:

• Step1: Make contact (at the door).
• Step2: Create a Non-judgmental context (declare the issue you plan to talk about).
• Step3: Exchange personal narratives (share personal stories).
• Step4: Invite analogic perspective taking (was there a time you need this support?).
• Step5: Make an explicit case (after listening, speak more openly about their own feelings).
• Step6: Seek to help the subject wrestle with it out loud.
• Step7: Only now respond to the subject's concerns with talking points and facts.
• Step8: Ask the subject to rate their support for the policy in question.

The author did well covering the basics of persuasion, and showing how often people say things that unwittingly go against their intentions which has major affects on important outcomes.