Obama Speech Offers Hope
for Reasonable Political Dialogue
Author and communication strategist Meryl Runion checked her inbox yesterday to find it full of political emails. The emails were from readers of her book Unite and Concur: How to stop arguing and start communicating about politics who had heard Democratic front runner Barack Obama’s speech on race relations. They were excited to hear a candidate speak in a substantive, unifying way.
“I hadn’t heard the speech when I read my emails,” Runion said, “but I knew I had to listen. And after I did, I was as excited as my emailers.”
The email subject lines in Runion’s inbox included: “Obama talks like Americans have some intelligence.” “Obama just changed the game.” And “I think Obama must have read Unite and Concur.”
“People know when they hear something authentic,” Runion said, “and they get excited because they’re hungry for it.”
When people suggested that the Reverend Wright controversy would be the end of Obama, Runion wasn’t so sure. She thought it could either be his downfall or a major opportunity depending on how Obama handled it. And she hoped that the way he handled it would be the beginning of substantive and intelligent political dialogue. “I have to say, as someone who is discouraged by the lack of reasonable political dialogue and who works hard to raise the level of dialogue, I feel happy and hopeful today after hearing someone speak in a sane and reasonable way.”
Runion does not suggest that we all just stand by and hope that other candidates follow Obama’s lead.
“If I was a Clinton or McCain supporter, I’d be emailing my candidate right now and imploring them to take cues from Obama’s speech,” Runion said. “American’s want our elected officials to speak to us with reason and respect.”
Meryl Runion’s Unite and Concur: How to stop arguing and start communicating about politics is an eye-opening eBook about political communication, written to help people to communicate sanely with each other about politics and to encourage citizens to hold their leaders to higher standards of communication.
“When spin substitutes for substance and the real issues are never addressed, we all lose,” Runion said. “Divide and conquer doesn’t work for democracy. We need to Unite and Concur. That’s why I wrote my book, and that’s why I’m delighted about Obama’s speech. Reasonable dialogue – pass it on. We just might find out Americans are smarter than we’ve been given credit for!
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Meryl Runion, Unite and Concur, and Speak Strong (SpeakStrong) provide Power Phrases (PowerPhrases) and other tools to help you improve communication skills at work and at home and in your community.
She is the author of the books Unite and Concur, PowerPhrases!, How to Use PowerPhrases, Perfect Phrases for Managers and Supervisors and How to Say It: Performance Reviews. You can reach her at 719-684-2633 or by email:
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