The Ass Is A Poor Receptacle For The Head: Why Democrats Suck At Communication, And How They Could Improve

By Barry Eisler

"Barry Eisler is this generation's tech-savvy new media incarnation of Graham Greene."
-Jeremy Scahill, The Nation

By internationally bestselling thriller author and syndicated political blogger Barry Eisler, THE ASS IS A POOR RECEPTACLE FOR THE HEAD is a must-read for anyone interested in verbally crushing the competition in politics, business, and even romance.

Regardless of what you think of their policies, the sad truth is that Democrats suck at selling their ideas to the public.

In this hilarious and hard-hitting essay, Eisler draws on his expertise in narrative, his CIA training in persuasion, and his background in technology marketing to offer Democrats some sound advice on how to improve their communications strategy. Borrowing principles from judo and boxing, Eisler encourages Democrats (and anyone trying to sell an idea) to hammer their opponents into a rhetorical corner...and knock them the hell out!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barry Eisler
• Release date: May 12, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458161970

Barry Eisler

Barry Eisler spent three years in a covert position with the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, then worked as a technology lawyer and startup executive in Silicon Valley and Japan, earning his black belt at the Kodokan Judo Institute along the way. Eisler’s bestselling thrillers have won the Barry Award and the Gumshoe Award for Best Thriller, have been included in numerous “Best of” lists, have been translated into nearly twenty languages, and include the #1 bestseller Livia Lone. Eisler lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and, when he’s not writing novels, blogs about torture, civil liberties, and the rule of law. Learn more at www.barryeisler.com.

Book preview

Regardless of what you think of their policies, the sad truth is that Democrats suck at selling their ideas to the public. In this hilarious and hard-hitting essay, best-selling novelist and political blogger Barry Eisler draws on his expertise in narrative, his CIA training in persuasion, his time as an international intellectual property lawyer, and his background in technology marketing to offer Democrats some sound advice on how to improve their communications strategy. Borrowing principles from judo and boxing; using examples from advertising, movies, plays, speeches, and debates; and offering case studies of actual policy rollout successes and disasters, Eisler encourages Democrats to force Republicans to fight on Democratic terms, to use Republicans' own moves against them, and to not just slip a punch, but to hammer their opponents into a rhetorical corner and knock them the hell out.

Note: several of the links in this essay are to videos, which won’t display on all digital readers, but which ought to look fine if you view the document on your computer.

Copyright © 2011 by Barry Eisler

All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in from the author or publisher.

Smashwords Edition: May 2012

After graduating from Cornell Law School, Barry Eisler spent three years in a covert position in the CIA — not a bad start for a future thriller writer. After leaving the Agency, Eisler put his law degree to use, dividing his time between Washington, D.C., Silicon Valley, and Tokyo, first as a lawyer, then as a technology startup executive. Along the way, he earned his black belt from the Kodokan International Judo Center and started writing a novel, Rain Fall, that was published in 2002 to critical acclaim in over 20 countries and enabled him to write full time. Since then, Eisler has written a total of eight books, one screenplay, and a lot of blog posts. It was his discovery of the blogosphere, in fact, that led to Eisler's deepening politicization, and his latest novel, Inside Out, a thriller built on Guantanamo, Blackwater, and the missing CIA interrogation videos, is his most political yet, praised by former soldiers and spooks like Matthew Alexander and Robert Baer; journalists like Daphne Eviatar and Dahlia Lithwick; filmmakers like Charles Ferguson and Alex Gibney; and bloggers like Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill.

To stay in touch with Barry, sign up for his newsletter. It’s a private list and your email address will never be shared with anyone else. The newsletter is also a great way to be the first to learn about movie news, appearances, and other books and stories. You can also find Barry on his website, his blog Heart of the Matter, Facebook, and Twitter.

Preface

1. Whoever Chooses the Topic Wins the Argument

2. Narrative

3. Counterpunch. Better Yet, Judo

4. Message and Metamessage (Text and Subtext)

5. Frame Your Pitch as

Reviews for The Ass Is A Poor Receptacle For The Head

[abvr_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Anyone who’s paid attention to American politics for the last forty years will likely grant Barry Eisler’s central premise: the Republican party is, as a whole, superb at communicating its message, and the Democratic party is, as a whole, terrible at it. Eisler, a Democrat himself, is apoplectically frustrated with this state of affairs. It has, he argues, a crippling effect on the Democrats’ ability to win elections and – when they do win – to build and maintain support for their policies. Here again, politically astute readers will (regardless of party affiliation) likely agree with him.Eisler does not, of course, take that agreement for granted. He enumerates the Democrats’ rhetorical sins and the Republicans’ strengths – with compelling and (for Democrats) cringe-inducing examples – as a prelude to explaining how, by adopting a handful of simple strategies, the Democrats could do better. The great strength of The Ass is a Poor Receptacle . . . is its laser-like focus on those rhetorical strategies. He’s interested in teaching Democratic politicians and their supporters how to win arguments, and discusses individual policies like the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act not to advocate for them, but to use them as illustrative examples. Despite its Democrat-centric message, therefore, The Ass is a Poor Receptacle . . . makes a very effective (if highly informal) primer on how anyone can learn to argue their case for any socio-political position more effectively.The Ass is a Poor Receptacle . . . is, at 40 pages, a digital-age example of a once-flourishing non-fiction form: the pamphlet. Inexpensively priced and easily read in a sitting or two, it delivers a tightly focused argument in a length somewhere between a long magazine article and a short book. It is, regardless of your politics, well worth both your time and your money.