Exactly. Some people will remember seeing those numbers, others will remember hearing them. But more will remember, period, because she offered it in a couple ways than if she’d only spoken.
Sure, they could use more flashy graphics, but that’s not important. The technology matters far less than the clear message.
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It’s so much better than those politicians who act like the economic issues that impact us all are somehow incomprehensible to the average person, and it’s better to let them handle it… I’d much rather have someone out there in politics who doesn’t look down on their constituents and instead works to make it clear to all of us.
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I wondered about that too!
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Note she also used repetition - but in a way that felt natural - when learning new information people will remember it better if they hear it at least 3 times.
Head on - apply directly to the forehead - was the most blatant example of this.
It’s one of the reasons the GoP message machine is so effective - they all get the talking points - say them - no matter if they apply to the conversation at all - then the Fox anchor says them, then the morning news across the country says them - by the afternoon of the next day even CNN is saying them - using them as a ‘how do you respond to…’ question - once we get to that point the dittoheads assume it’s a fact - because no one challenges it.
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When I was a boy scout about 100 years ago, we were given a task to explain the workings of the internal combustion engine. Each of us had to explain one aspect to the rest of the troop. I had to explain “The compression cycle” (“Suck, Squeeze, bang, blow”). I was the only one who drew up big illustrations. We sat through a few brief lectures, to which everyone went “meh (shrug)”. When I unfolded my illustrations there were gasps and everyone craned forward. Ideally, we should have let people rotate a working model of a crankshaft with pistons, but this was the best option available.
I hear and forget; I see and remember; I do and I understand.
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Oh, that would make a whole lost more sense. Even the closed caption read “300”
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Bit more interesting than that.
She accepts it and moves on. She starts with “the costs of letting people like Joe Manchin block things”, but doesn’t dwell on it. O’Donnell even acknowledges that, pointing out that he hadn’t heard Manchin was actually a stumbling block for the issues she mentions.
So she’s not feeding the “Oh No! Manchin” beast, but not ignoring or letting him off the hook either.
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one of the things about manchin beyond his connections to west virginia coal is his family connection to pharma. mylan of epipen infamy being one of his biggest campaign contributors
so it wasn’t the first part of the conversation i was talking about. but yeah, i agree she was try to keep things about the bigger picture and not just manchin ( or sinema ) and their corporate donors
i mean republicans could be putting up their own climate change, health care, race, education, policing, manufacturing, inflation, etc. ideas, they haven’t and they won’t, so the issue is bigger than two dinos
(eta: the above article is old. but the issue is still the same. he won’t support things that affect his donors )
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Its perplexing how the American legislature (or America) does not have a preponderance of people like her.
Why is the average GQP congressperson supporting the Big Lie? Or, if they are “one of the [few] good ones” (and are against trump), they still are nevertheless GOP, which means their entire agenda is: cutting taxes for the wealthy, gun rights, abolish abortion rights and nothing else.
Other democracies do not have this behavior.
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Welcome to Australia:
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The behaviour is there but it’s somewhat mitigated by Westminster-style parliamentary systems that don’t automatically create duopolies with fixed terms. You still have toxic major parties like the Tories with clowns like de Pfeffel at their heads but they don’t always have majority governments and they have to be wary of coalitions and no-confidence votes.
That said, Porter is pretty extraordinary in any democratic system. Smart, knowledgeable and competent legislators like her aren’t created or necessarily fostered by such systems, but the American system in particular does not accord her the higher profile and responsibilities she deserves.
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I think that’s maybe exactly the kind of thing I had in mind. The graphical representations in your example jump out at me as being clearly useful in explaining your point.
In this video, Rep. Porter writes out some numbers. They’re significant numbers and as has been mentioned, it’s good that they linger on the screen for more time than it takes to either speak or hear them. But I wonder if there’s more that can be done to give them extra meaning or clarity. A graphical indication of postive or negative costs, or maybe a chart which approximates relative magnitudes of values. Heck, even green or red pens can add a degree of clarity when talking about a surplus or deficit.
Still, as also said elsewhere, writing sideways like that is a heck of a skill, and I’m sure I wouldn’t even be able to remember the figures in the first place, let alone scrawl them out reliably! I’ve seen other videos of her at work with the whiteboard (grilling a Pharmaceutical CEO, I believe it was) and I think she got a bit more out of it in that example. Great stuff.
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You might be thinking of this one, it was great!
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I think it might be, yes!
Gotta love those sticky circles showing relative values… $50billion. Boom!
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I try to explain this to my oldest, who wants to Tell me what their post-school schedule is for the week on Sunday night / Monday morning. My response? Do you really think I’m going to remember what you are doing Thursday evening when there is a reasonable chance (and you know it) that I’m going to have forgotten what your MONDAY plans are by the time school lets out?
Of course, then they want to tell me so “I” can write it down…you don’t have email? Seriously, get it to me in writing and sh*te happens. Don’t, and assume that it never will. Same principle I regularly use at work…Long meeting, action items and follow-up? Better make sure I have an email about it or when we meet next not a damn thing is going to have been done.
NOTE: Recent ADHD diagnosis; I have a LOT of coping mechanisms I’ve put together over the last years before I knew. One of the strongest is “my memory sucks, help me help you by making sure I remember it through documentation”. Honestly, the ADHD hyperfocus is one of the traits that makes me a GREAT investigator in IT, allowing me to dive deep into a problem and only surface when I have some kind of answer. But ADHD is also why I am so VERY bad at long term goals, planning, and general extended lifecycle projects…it is way too easy to get sucked into the next firefight and leave the REMF behind.
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THIS!! 1000 times this. I’m in Kansas, so…you know. But honestly, I’ve always voted policy not party…it just so happens as a Left-of-Dem progressive, there is rarely an R that comes close. Having said that, if I could be given a choice of a ‘decent’ person who happens to be an R… Porter as an (R) would be infinitely better than my current crop of dunderheads [Marshall … <Le sigh>]
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Did you mean Dianne Feinstein, perhaps? She’s in the Senate and will be 91 when her term is up in 2024.
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Yep- brain skipped a groove!
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