If you want power, be emotional, not rational

Drew Westen’s book on the political brain is the talk of Washington. Here, he explains why the path to electoral victory is not governed by reason

In the last 40 years, only one Democrat has been elected and re-elected to the American presidency: Bill Clinton. And during the same period, only one Republican has failed to win re-election: George H.W. Bush. These are astounding facts, given that during those same years, whenever registered Democrats and Republicans were not in roughly equal numbers in the United States, Democrats were in the majority, as they are today.

Democratic voters are confused and frustrated. What’s the matter with Kansas, they ask? Why do blue-collar workers consistently vote for wealthy Republicans who staunchly oppose increasing the minimum wage while giving themselves a $70 billion tax cut?

Because Democrats are starting from the wrong vision of mind and brain: a dispassionate vision, which suggests that if you just marshall the right facts and figures, policies and position statements, voters will compare the candidates on ‘the issues’ and choose the one who maximises their rational self-interest. The problem is that that’s not how the mind and brain work at all.

Consider a populist appeal made by Al Gore in a presidential debate with then-governor George W. Bush. When asked what older voters could expect from the two candidates on health care, Gore offered this response: ‘Under the Governor’s plan, if you kept the same fee for service that you have now under Medicare, your premiums would go up by between 18 and 47 per cent, and that is the study of the Congressional plan that he’s modeled his proposal on by the Medicare actuaries. Let me give you one quick example. There is a man here tonight named George McKinney from Milwaukee. He’s 70 years old, has high blood pressure, his wife has heart trouble.