The Political Persuasion Imperative
The Political Persuasion Imperative
Anand Giridharadas’s ‘The Persuaders’ has a simple message for the left: Don’t give up on people.
I’ve been lucky to read some great books over the past few years, but only a couple have truly transformed my understanding of how the world works. Anand Giridharadas’s Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, which was published in 2018, is one of those books.
That made it especially rewarding to review Giridharadas’s new book, The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy. My review, “A Progressive, and Persuasive, Case for a Politics of Persuasion,” was published in The American Prospect earlier this month.
What The Persuaders explores—and the book is very much an exploration—is not just whether political persuasion matters, but whether persuasion is even possible. As Giridharadas writes:
When fighting for justice and change, how do you bring others along—those who are not there yet, and those who are actively complicit? In the movement to end oppression, is there space for imperfect allies? How imperfect is too imperfect? Do people who are part of a problem have a place in the search for solutions?
These are vital questions for Democrats and, in turn, for American democracy. Yet despite the high stakes, the urgency with which The Persuaders challenges the left to undertake the project of changing minds is matched by the hopefulness that the book exudes. As the review concludes:
Through story and anecdote and human experience, the book injects nuance and humanity into debates and dilemmas that are all too often fatalistic and cynical. The Persuaders brings its subjects to life, portraying their successes and struggles in a way that manages to leave the reader with a sense of solidarity and hopefulness, a conviction that the project of democracy is not lost, and an inspiration to get to work.
In a few weeks I’ll be speaking with Giridharadas about his journey from Winners to Persuaders, the reaction the book has received so far (particularly from Democratic gatekeepers), and what the midterm election results might say about the prospects for progressive persuasion. I’ll publish that interview here.
In the meantime, you can read my full review here: “A Progressive, and Persuasive, Case for a Politics of Persuasion.” Thanks to David Dayen and Ryan Cooper at The American Prospect for running the piece in print and online.