Cracking the Code: How to Win Hearts, Change Minds, and Restore America's Original Vision

By the bestselling author and XM and Sirius Satellite radio host heard on more than eighty radio stations coast to coast seven days a week

Shows progressives how to master the science and technology of persuasive communication and counter the right-wing message machine

Offers exercises and examples throughout to help readers put the concepts they'Äôre learning into practice

Millions of working Americans talk, act, and vote as if their economic interests match those of the megawealthy, the multinational corporations, and the politicians who do their bidding. How did this happen? According to Air America radio host Thom Hartmann, the apologists of the Right have become masters of the subtle and largely subconscious aspects of political communication. It'Äôs not an escalation in Iraq, it'Äôs a surge; it'Äôs not the inheritance tax, it'Äôs the death tax; it'Äôs not drilling for oil, it'Äôs exploring for energy.

Conservatives didn'Äôt intuit the path to persuasive messaging'Äîthey learned these techniques. There is no reason why progressives can'Äôt learn them too. In Cracking the Code, Hartmann shows you how. Drawing on his background as a psychotherapist and advertising executive as well as a national radio host, he breaks down the science and technology of effective communication so you can apply it to your own efforts to counter right-wing disinformation. It'Äôs both an art and a science'Äîas Hartmann explains, political persuasion is as much about biology as ideology, about knowing how the brain processes information and how that influences the way people perceive messages, make decisions, and form a worldview.

Throughout the book, Hartmann shows you precisely how to master this technology, providing examples dating back to the time of the Founding Fathers. As you read deeply in this book, you'Äôll see things you hadn'Äôt realized were there'Äîin everything from advertising to political rants'Äîand discover abilities you didn'Äôt know you had. Whether you'Äôre a politician, an activist, a volunteer, or a concerned citizen, you'Äôll develop a strong sense for how to reach into that part of the collective human psyche where we truly do have the power to create a new world.

© 2025 Berrett-Koehler Publishers (Ebook): 9781605090146

Release date

Ebook: 7 January 2025