There has recently been some recent campaign and news media chatter as to the nature of the oratorical superpowers being demonstrated by Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., and Donald Trump — on the stump.
What is it about their rhetorical prowess that drives a crowd wild?
The big reveal: both Gov. DeSantis and former-President Trump both use the power of suggestion.
The left has long profitably exercised the power of suggestion, insidiously and effectively, taking unfair advantage of us more prosaic conservatives.
Now, both Trump and DeSantis are engaging in what amounts to flipping the left’s script.
High time!
Professional propagandists have long known the several styles of persuasion (a/k/a modes of discourse, or rhetoric).
Three are weak, one strong.
These were inventoried by Samuel P. Newman in "A Practical System of Rhetoric" back in 1827. Yet conservatives (and our strange bedfellows, the libertarians) tend to bitterly cling to the weak modes: description, exposition, and argumentation.
The flaw in these modes, in the words of Dale Carnegie, author of "How To Win Friends and Influence People" (1936), is: "A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still." (Same for women, maybe even more so.)
Meanwhile the left mastered Newman’s strong mode of persuasion: narration, using its Shadow-like ability to cloud men’s minds.
My dear nemesis Patrick Reinsborough and his co-author Doyle Canning in their cult classic book, "RE:Imagining Change: How to use story-based strategy to win campaigns, build movements and change the world," spells out how.
Narration appeals more to imagination, a powerful motivating force, than to logical persuasion. Imagination does not mean imaginary, as in "fantasy."
Napoleon once said, "Yes, imagination rules the world."
By telling a dramatic story — with a hero and a villain (or villainous impersonal force, like climate change) — you can enlist millions enthusiastically in your cause. Their engagement can empower you to transform the world socially, economically, and politically.
Several years ago, I discovered a second strong mode to add to Newman’s strong "narration." I here reveal it, immodestly naming it after myself, its discoverer: "The Benko Gambit."
Declaration is as strong, or stronger, a persuader even than narration.
"Declaration," as defined by the New Oxford American Dictionary, "a formal or explicit statement or announcement." (Piquantly, their hindmost definition: "the naming of trump in bridge, whist, or a similar card game.")
Thomas Jefferson conjured a whole new suite of values into reality by writing the Declaration of Independence. Not the description, exposition of, or argument for Independence.
The Declaration.
Jefferson declared, eloquently persuading 55 more of colonial America’s leading citizens to ratify it, that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. . . . "
Today, Americans consider the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to be axiomatic. These became "self-evident" truths by virtue of their declaration as such.
Our fathers had not "brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" by dint of a description, exposition, or argument for Independence.
They did so by declaration.
Donald Trump, from the moment he descended the escalator, and Ron DeSantis, from the moment of his ascension to the governor’s mansion, made and featured declarations.
Declaration’s their superpower, born from the brow of Jefferson.
Until now, it’s been culturally appropriated, owned, by the left.
Oh lefties? We demand our sombrero back!
Declaration derives its power from what professional hypnotists’ call "the power of suggestion."
It’s a powerful power.
I have written repeatedly about Donald Trump’s formidable hypnotic powers at Fortune, Forbes, Newsmax and The Journal of Hypnotism. My fellow hypnotist, Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams, also has written at length on this topic.
I have been designated by the National Guild of Hypnotists, the world’s oldest, largest, and most respected professional association of non-clinical hypnotists, as one of the top 100 non-clinical hypnotists in the world.
I know what gives.
What gives?
Per Devin Terhune, a lecturer in psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London and Steven Jay Lynn, a distinguished professor of psychology and director of The Psychological Clinic at Binghamton University, State University of New York writing at Newsweek, Scientists are Discovering How the Power of Suggestion Works on the Brain:
"Seemingly sensational responses to hypnosis may just be striking instances of the powers of suggestion and beliefs to shape our perception and behavior. What we think will happen morphs seamlessly into what we ultimately experience.” (Emphasis added.)
Conundrum resolved.
Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump, like Thomas Jefferson and William Jennings Bryan before them, captivate the popular imagination by using declaration.
Yes, imagination rules the world.
Ralph Benko, co-author of "The Capitalist Manifesto" and chairman and co-founder of "The Capitalist League," is the founder of The Prosperity Caucus and is an original Kemp-era member of the Supply-Side revolution that propelled the Dow from 814 to its current heights and world GDP from $11T to $94T. Read Ralph Benko's reports — More Here.
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