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Absolutely right:

But sterile white papers and academic arguments do nothing for us. We need to be just as passionate and visceral as the Republicans, but do so while speaking truthfully and factually. Some Democrats are starting to get good at this. Most are not, and that's a problem. The old school Dems say "just let each candidate figure out what works in their district." While it is certainly wise to read the room, there are SKILLS involved in persuading people. This stuff is trainable

One big problem is that most political candidates at the national level are lawyers. Lawyers are train to make persuasive arguments, but only within a fairly tight set of rules in court. Their ability to appeal to emotions is quite limited. So in a sense, they are trained NOT to connect on an emotional level. Of course, the best lawyers find ways to make that connection within the rules. But most of our politicians are completely clueless about this.

When businesses have this problem (and all do) they pay for sales training to teach the skils of persuasion. This is a real skill set, just as an engineer is trained to calculate loads on a bridge span and a photographer is trained on the use of light. We need to make policy real for people.