It is time for us to recognize the emotion that is driving even Senator Grassley to say these things about the health care reform effort that he said in the above video.

Whenever Grassley hears of a program of increased government involvement, his emotions tell him that this is a bad idea.  The emotional system is what makes decisions first.  Then the rational brain comes along and tries to figure out the justification for this emotional reaction.  Most people believe that it works the other way.  They think that they went through a rational decision process to decide whether or not they like an idea. In reality the like or dislike came before the rational process.

So we have to understand that the opponent’s emotional system tell them to be wary of government.  No matter how much you try to explain away their rationalizations, their brain will be able to come up with another reason to explain their emotion.

We all have to be more like Obama and hear the emotion underlying the fear and figure out a way to deal with it.  In the end, there will be some people who will have enough flexibility to be able to overcome their gut reaction.  It will be worthwhile to get those people on your side.  There will always be some who just cannot see beyond their emotions.  If enough people are convinced of the correctness of the proposal, that will be enough ro carry the day.

For the rest, we ought not to purposely do things that reinforce their negative emotions.

Please speak up if you have some even better ways to deal with this situation.  Situations like this are going to arise again and again throughout Obama’s 8 year tenure.