I fully agree with your assessment, Justin. People are not rational (in the philosophical or economic sense), but vain and opportunistic discomfort minimizers. That means that they will be most likely swayed by:
- appeals to their vanity (i.e. something that gives them an illusion of power or self-importance); - opportunities of an easy gain here and know with little regard for the price they may pay latter; - simplistic rationalizations that reduce their cognitive dissonance and discomfort caused by troubling facts.
The Repugs and marketers are really good at playing that game, as evidenced by their ability to persuade people to act against their own economic interests or ethical standards. Any rational appeal to those standards is unlikely to succeed, because those standards have already been subverted by propaganda appeals. It is as if someone wanted to hire an attorney to recover money stolen from him and hoped to pay her with that stolen money.
There is something to be learned from the Soviets in their earlier years how to effectively use propaganda for progressive causes - by linking them to the popular perceptions, discourses and stereotypes. Michael Moore is on the right track in this respect, but that is another story.
Wojtek