You don't think you've ever been hypnotised by a politician? Or anyone else out to persuade you? This might change your mind. Comply with Me solves the puzzle of how Donald Trump gains and keeps loyal support, a conundrum that has stumped professional commentators as well as all those who don't feel compelled to vote for him. It reveals the motive behind his weird handshakes, why he speaks in such a strange way and even what drives him to keep the area around his eyes so pale. Whether he was trained or is a natural, Trump uses hypnosis techniques to get his message deep into people's minds - and he is not the only professional persuader using such tricks either. Trump's aim is to achieve unthinking compliance and he does that by using hypnotic confusion techniques which enable him to embed suggestions into his subjects' unconscious minds. He achieves this with individuals as well as with the crowds he addresses. A central part of hypnosis practice is artful suggestion. Donald Trump is a master of the craft. He can imply what he wants to happen without needing to make his commands clear. As a child, like all of us, he absorbed suggestions from his grandfather and parents. The impact of repeatedly being told when young that he was a 'king' and a 'killer' is evident in his adult behaviour. Positive Thinking is a keystone of Trump's self-regard, learning it from the leading exponent, Norman Vincent Peale. who told him he would be 'America's greatest builder'. He also learnt hypnosis, probably when it was fashionable as NLP and he was keen to clinch real estate deals. Hypnotherapists will lie or exaggerate to achieve the aims of their clients. This is ethical if the aim is to help a person give up an addiction or achieve a sense of well-being. Trump and other politicians also recognise that the truth is less important than emotions if they want to convince someone. Their objectives however are not therapeutic. People are often afraid of hypnosis, but they cannot be left ignorant any longer. It's a natural part of being human; we all go into a trance regularly, when watching TV or doing repetitive tasks. Used well, hypnosis is a force for good. It is also a powerful tool to gain control over others. Some politicians, including those on the far-right, are using hypnosis to sway public opinion. If an argument is going against them, they will use misdirection and exaggeration to divert attention from opposing views. Trump and others who imitate him are experts at using hypnotic confusion to cloud the truth. We must acknowledge the power of hypnosis and make everyone aware of how it works. Readers will learn to spot when someone is trying to manipulate them subliminally and how to defend themselves from it. The book describes how to use hypnotic trance to help yourself, to relax, become acquainted with your unconscious wisdom and make sure your opinions are your own. Lisa Morgan identified what Trump was doing early in his presidency and felt compelled to expose it.

Thanks to a series of recent US Supreme Court decisions, corporations can now spend unlimited sums to influence elections, Super PACs and dark money groups are flourishing, and wealthy individuals and special interests increasingly dominate American politics. Despite the overwhelming support of Americans to fix this broken system, serious efforts at reform have languished. Campaign finance is a highly intricate and complex area of the law, and the current system favors the incumbent politicians who oversee it. This illuminating book takes these hard realities as a starting point and offers realistic solutions to reform campaign finance. With contributions from more than a dozen leading scholars of election law, it should be read by anyone interested in reclaiming the promise of American democracy.

Presidential Image has become an integral part of the campaign, presidency and legacy of Modern American presidents. Across the 20th century to the age of Trump, presidential image has dominated media coverage and public consciousness, winning elections, gaining support for their leadership in office and shaping their reputation in history. Using ten presidential case studies. this edited collection features contributions from scholars and political journalists from the UK and America, to analyse aspects of Presidential Image that shaped their perceived effectiveness as America's leader, and to explore this complex, controversial, and continuous element of modern presidential politics.

There are a number of controversies surrounding the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Africa. Critics have charged it with neo-colonial meddling in African affairs, accusing it of undermining national sovereignty and domestic attempts to resolve armed conflict. Here, based on 650 interviews over 11 years, Phil Clark critically assesses the politics of the ICC in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, focusing particularly on the Court's multi-level impact on national politics and the lives of everyday citizens. He explores the ICC's effects on peace negotiations, national elections, domestic judicial reform, amnesty processes, combatant demobilisation and community-level accountability and reconciliation. In attempting to distance itself from African conflict zones geographically, philosophically and procedurally, Clark also reveals that the ICC has become more politicised and damaging to African polities, requiring a substantial rethink of the approaches and ideas that underpin the ICC's practice of distant justice.

Over the course of American political history, political elites and organizations have often updated their political communications strategies in order to achieve longstanding political communicaiton goals in more efficient or effective ways. But why do successful innovations occur when they do, and what motivates political actors to make choices about how to innovate their communication tactics? Covering over 300 years of political communication innovations, Ben Epstein shows how this process of change happens and why. To do this, Epstein, following an interdisciplinary approach, proposes a new model called "the political communication cycle" that accounts for the technological, behavioral, and political factors that lead to revolutionary political communication changes over time.These changes (at least the successful ones) have been far from gradual, as long periods of relatively stable political communication activities have been disrupted by brief periods of dramatic and permanent transformation. These transformations are driven by political actors and organizations, and tend to follow predictable patterns. Epstein moves beyond the technological determinism that characterizes communication history scholarship and the medium-specific focus of much political communication work. The book identifies the political communication revolutions that have, in the United States, led to four, relatively stable political communication orders over history: the elite, mass, broadcast, and (the current) information orders. It identifies and tests three phases of each revolutionary cycle, ultimately sketching possible paths for the future. The Only Constant is Change offers readers and scholars a model and vocabulary to compare political communication changes across time and between different types of political organizations. This provides greater understanding of where we are currently in the recurring political communication cycle, and where we might be headed.

With extraordinary access to the Trump White House, Michael Wolff tells the inside story of the most controversial presidency of our time.

The first nine months of Donald Trump’s term were stormy, outrageous―and absolutely mesmerizing. Now, thanks to his deep access to the West Wing, bestselling author Michael Wolff tells the riveting story of how Trump launched a tenure as volatile and fiery as the man himself. In this explosive book, Wolff provides a wealth of new details about the chaos in the Oval Office.

Among the revelations:

• What President Trump’s staff really thinks of him
• What inspired Trump to claim he was wire-tapped by President Obama
• Why FBI director James Comey was really fired
• Why chief strategist Steve Bannon and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner couldn’t be in the same room
• Who is really directing the Trump administration’s strategy in the wake of Bannon’s firing
• What the secret to communicating with Trump is
• What the Trump administration has in common with the movie The Producers

Never before has a presidency so divided the American people. Brilliantly reported and astoundingly fresh, Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury shows us how and why Donald Trump has become the king of discord and disunion.

Non-elected actors, such as non-governmental organizations and celebrity activists, present themselves as representatives of others to audiences of decision-makers, such as state leaders, the European Union, the United Nations, and the World Trade Organization. These actors are increasingly included in the deliberation and decision-making processes of such institutions. To take one well-known example, the non-governmental organization, Oxfam, presses decision-makers and governments for fair trade rules on behalf of the world's poor. What entitles such 'self-appointed representatives' to speak and act for the poor? As The Economist asked, 'Who elected Oxfam?'. Montanaro claims that such actors can, and should, be conceptualized as representatives, and that they can - though do not always - represent others in a manner that we can recognize as democratic. However, in order to do so, we must stretch our imaginations beyond the standard normative framework of elections.

"Stumping," or making political speeches in favor of a candidate, cause, or campaign has been around since before the 1800s, when speechmaking was frequently portrayed as delivered from the base of a tree. The practice, which has been strongly associated with the American frontier, British agitators, and colonial Australia, remains an effective component of contemporary democratic politics. In his engaging book On the Stump, Sean Scalmer provides the first comprehensive, transnational history of the "stump speech." He traces the development and transformation of campaign oratory, as well as how national elections and public life and culture have been shaped by debate over the past century. Scalmer presents an eloquent study of how "stumping" careers were made, sustained, remembered, and exploited, to capture the complex rhythms of political change over the years. On the Stump examines the distinctive dramatic and performative styles of celebrity orators including Davy Crockett, Henry Clay, and William Gladstone. Ultimately, Scalmer recovers the history of the stump speech and its historical significance in order to better understand how political change is forged.

Have you ever seen a politician fiercely attacking his opponent? Sure you have. Election campaigns without attacks on the rival candidate's performance, policy propositions and traits simply do not exist. Negative campaigning makes up a substantial part of election campaigns around the world. Though heavily covered in election news, the practice is strongly disliked by political pundits, journalists and voters. Some are even concerned that negative campaigning damages democracy itself. Negative campaigning has inspired numerous scholars in recent decades. But much of the existing research examines the phenomenon only in the United States, and scholars disagree on how the practice should be defined and measured, which has resulted in open-ended conclusions about its causes and effects. This unique volume presents for the first time work examining negative campaigning in the US, Europe and beyond. It presents systematic literature overviews and new work that touches upon three fundamental questions: What is negative campaigning and can we measure it? What causes negative campaigning? And what are its effects?

The CQ Press Guide to U.S. Elections, Seventh Edition is a comprehensive, two-volume reference providing information on the U.S. electoral process, in-depth analysis on specific political eras and issues, and everything in between. Thoroughly revised and infused with new data, analysis, and discussion of issues relating to elections through 2015, the Guide will include chapters on: Analysis of the campaigns for presidency, from the primaries through the general election Data on the candidates, winners/losers, and election returns Details on congressional and gubernatorial contests from the primaries through the general elections supplemented with vast historical data Coverage of campaign finance, as well as reapportionment and redistricting Key Features include: Tables, boxes and figures interspersed throughout each chapter Data on campaigns, election methods, and results Complete lists of House and Senate leaders Links to election-related websites A guide to party abbreviations This reference will be available in time for readers to gain an understanding of various aspects of elections as we enter the 2016 presidential campaign season.

The UK Independence Party (Ukip) is the most significant new force in British politics for a generation. Under the leadership of Nigel Farage, the party has enjoyed a remarkable rise, winning the 2014 European Parliament elections as well as two parliamentary by-elections, and attracting mainstream defectors to achieve major party status. By the time of the 2015 general election, Farage and Ukip stood on the threshold of becoming a major force at Westminster. This account is a must-read for anyone interested in the inside story of Ukip's quest to change British politics during one of the most unpredictable and dramatic elections in recent history. Based on unprecedented access to the party and its key players, the book pulls back the curtain on one of the most intriguing campaigns in living memory. It includes behind the scenes observations from the campaign trail and more than one hundred interviews - with leading Ukip insiders such as Nigel Farage, Douglas Carswell, and Mark Reckless, as well as major donors, strategists, and figures from across the political landscape as they grappled with Ukip's rise. Matthew Goodwin and Caitlin Milazzo reveal what really happened during the 2015 election campaign and in the by-elections and defections which preceded it, providing detailed accounts of the critical moments that shaped both the election itself and British politics more widely. The book also makes extensive use of British Election Study data from over five decades to answer important questions about the rise of Ukip and what it signifies. Who voted for Ukip and why? How are political loyalties in Britain changing over time? What are the deeper currents that have made Ukip's rise possible and will continue to shape its future? And what does the party's campaign for power reveal about the current evolution of British politics and society? UKIP takes readers inside the campaign, telling for the first time the exciting inside story of a new party attempting to redraw the map of British politics.

What meaning can be found in calamity and suffering? This question is in some sense perennial, reverberating through the canons of theology, philosophy, and literature. Today, The Politics of Consolation reveals, it is also a significant part of American political leadership. Faced with uncertainty, shock, or despair, Americans frequently look to political leaders for symbolic and existential guidance, for narratives that bring meaning to the confrontation with suffering, loss, and finitude. Politicians, in turn, increasingly recognize consolation as a cultural expectation, and they often work hard to fulfill it. The events of September 11, 2001 raised these questions of meaning powerfully. How were Americans to make sense of the violence that unfolded on that sunny Tuesday morning? This book examines how political leaders drew upon a long tradition of consolation discourse in their effort to interpret September 11, arguing that the day's events were mediated through memories of past suffering in decisive ways. It then traces how the struggle to define the meaning of September 11 has continued in foreign policy discourse, commemorative ceremonies, and the contentious redevelopment of the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan.

The Scottish independence referendum of 2014 was the most colourful, dynamic and longest political campaign Scotland has ever seen and which, in IndyRef to ScotRef , is lovingly recounted through the experiences of a university lecturer turned Yes for Scotland activist who was inspired to roll up his sleeves and get involved in his native city of Edinburgh. Sharing a personal journey that will resonate with tens of thousands of Scots, from all backgrounds and walks of life, who found themselves drawn to Campaigning for Yes, Peter Lynch describes his transition from an academic observer of the referendum to an active participant. Through his early involvement with local Yes groups to a deeper immersion in the grassroots campaign with leafleting, street stalls, door-to-door canvassing, public meetings, electoral registration and the many political carnivals held across Edinburgh in pursuit of a Yes vote, Lynch also rediscovered the city he grew up in and describes how it had been effected by decades of economic, political and social change. When Yes Scotland was launched in May 2012, support for independence stood at 23% but, as the IndyRef campaign galvanised and inspired the nation to debate its future in a way that caught the imagination of hundreds of thousands of previously non-politically active Scots, support for independence grew steadily reaching 44.7% - 1,617,989 votes - on 18th September 2014; referendum day. Of interest to supporters of independence and neutral observers alike, IndyRef to ScotRef explains how, despite losing the vote, many Yes activists soon concluded that the referendum campaign had fundamentally changed their lives as well as the political landscape of Scotland and committed themselves to `get it right next time': it was the beginning, not the end. In the final chapters of IndyRef to ScotRef, Peter Lynch analyses the huge political events that have occurred in Scotland and the rest of the UK since September 2014, which have seen the SNP's domination of Scottish politics and Britain voting for Brexit despite Scotland voting to Remain, resulting in the decision of the Scottish Parliament in March 2017 to call for a further independence referendum. With an eye on ScotRef, whenever it comes, Lynch warns `Yessers' to be realistic and prepared, outlining what must be done to secure a `Yes' for Scotland.

This book shows how British politics is being transformed from a leadership-run system to one dictated by public needs and demands. No longer confined to party politics, organizations including the monarchy, the BBC, universities, local councils, charities and the Scottish Parliament are adopting the tools of market intelligence to understand their market needs and demands.The political marketing revolution raises many questions, such as whether the student or patient really does know best and can decide his own education and health care. The book calls for a debate about the movement of the British political system towards a market-orientation and a re-negotiation of the relationship between leaders and the market. While recognizing the need for political leaders to listen, this debate places some responsibilities on the political consumer, looking to create a new relationship that might work more effectively for both sides.

On the morning of 8 June 1988 dozens of children from Washington DC schools arrived at the United States capitol, carrying a small black doll to deliver to the lawmakers. Each doll represented a child who would be harmed by the sanctions congress had recently imposed on South Africa. This event was organised by a group calling itself the Wake up America coalition, headed by the Reverend Kenneth A. Frazier, a black American. Years later the event would be revealed as part of an elaborate campaign aimed at turning the American public against further sanctions on South Africa. It was one of many in a nearly 50-year lobbying and propaganda campaign by the apartheid government to improve its image in the United States and other countries. Official estimates put annual spending on the campaign at about $100-million a year, though the true amount might never be known. This book tells the story of the South African propaganda campaign, run with military precision, which involved a worldwide network of supporters, including global corporations with business operations in South Africa, conservative religious organisations and an unlikely coalition of liberal US black clergy and anti-communist black conservatives aligned with right-wing Cold War politicians.

A large focus of the campaign was put on the United States because as its one-time coordinator, Eschel Rhoodie, wrote: "America dominates Western thought as far as Africa is concerned." Not even the exposure of the programme by South African journalists in the late 1970s, which would bring down a president and send Rhoodie on the run, would stop the worldwide campaign. In fact, it would expand and morph into a much larger and subtler operation. It would end in the early 1990s, only after domestic problems caused the government to focus its energies on issues at home. Selling Apartheid will tell the story of this global apartheid campaign. Interviews with many of the players, South African government ministers and civil servants, corporate leaders, anti-apartheid leaders and others, provide a behind-the-scenes look at the attempt to sell apartheid abroad.

In addition, thousands of previously unreleased records from both the South African and the United States archives will help shed light on the scope of the campaign and reveal an astonishing story.

This book is intended to respond to Congress's ongoing interest in campaign finance policy following the Supreme Court's April 2014 McCutcheon decision. The book relies on a question-and-answer format designed to highlight key information in a brief and accessible way. This book offers a preliminary analysis of major policy issues and potential implications that appear to be most relevant as the House and Senate assess the ruling and consider how to respond. The book discusses possible implications of the case for campaign fundraising or disclosure to illustrate policy issues that might be relevant for congressional consideration. This book also includes updated material that emphasises the issues most prominently before the 113th Congress. It also discusses foundational information about major elements of campaign finance policy.

In a time of global infotainment, the crisis of modern journalism, the omnipresence of celebrity culture and reality TV, and the colonization of public discourse by media spectacle and entertainment, postmodern satiric media have emerged as prominent critical voices playing an unprecedented role at the heart of public debate. Indeed, satiric media has filled gaps left not only by traditional media but also by weak social institutions and discredited political elites. In Satiric TV in the Americas, Paul Alonso analyzes the most influential satiric TV shows in the Americas-focusing on shows in Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, Chile and the United States-in order to understand their critical role in challenging the status quo, traditional journalism, and the prevalent local media culture. Alonso illuminates the phenomenon of satire as resistance and negotiation in public discourse, the role of entertainment media as a site where socio-political tensions are played out, and the changing notions of journalism in today's democratic societies. Introducing the notion of "critical metatainment" - a transgressive, self-referential reaction to the process of tabloidization and the cult of celebrity in the media spectacle era - Satiric TV in the Americas is the first book to map, contextualize, and analyze relevant cases to understand the relation between political information, social and cultural dissent, critical humor, and entertainment in the region. Evaluating contemporary satiric media as a consequence of the collapse of modernity and its arbitrary dichotomies, Satiric TV in the Americas also shows that, as satiric formats travel to a particular national context, they are appropriated in different ways and adapted to local circumstances, with distinct consequences.

The book brings out Early Life and the rise of Shivaji till his coronation. Thereafter it delves up on various battles fought by him during his entire rule.

It's at the local level that some of the most crucial decisions are made about education, healthcare, emergency services, the environment, planning, development, and transportation -- decisions that directly affect the quality of our lives. And it's at the local level that ordinary citizens can still have a real impact on shaping their communities by getting involved. Political strategist Larry Tramutola provides practical lessons on how to win local elections and use organizing techniques to be effective politically. Originally published in 2004, this new edition is a re-framing of some of the lessons given the new challenges that communities face, and the growing appreciation that significant social change can come through organizing.

Before the Tea Party, the Coffee Party, the "Occupy" movement, Ross Perot or even the Libertarian Party, there was Robert Heinlein, a prophetic mastermind, calling to the people to organize in a grassroots movement to take back their government and to find an effective voice for their individual selves. *** Originally titled How to be a Politician, the book was written in 1946 based on Heinlein's own political experiences, in particular his efforts on behalf of Upton Sinclair to become the governor of California and for Sinclair's landmark effort to End Poverty in California (EPIC). *** Though Heinlein is best known for his science fiction work, he always had strong political views and often involved himself with various causes, including personally paying for advertisements in newspapers propagating his views.*** Here is a fascinating look, both historically and philosophically, at a great visionary's take on the political landscape in the United States, and what each of us can do to better this country.

With a new afterword by the author
Drawing on over a decade's experience at the Gallup Poll and a distinguished academic career in survey research, David W. Moore--praised as a "scholarly crusader" by the "New York Times"--reveals that pollsters don't report public opinion, they manufacture it. In this highly critical book, he describes the questionable tactics pollsters use to create poll-driven news stories-including force-feeding respondents, slanting the wording of questions, and ignoring public ignorance on even the most arcane issues. More than proof that the numbers do lie, "The Opinion Makers" clearly and convincingly spells out how urgent it is that we make polls deliver on their promise to monitor, not manipulate, the pulse of democracy.

Had John McCain simultaneously chosen Condoleezza Rice as his Vice Presidential running mate (instead of Sarah Palin) and Mitt Romney as his Chief Economic Advisor coming out of the Convention, the Republicans could have actually won the 2008 Presidential Election; even in the aftermath of the Wall Street Economic Meltdown (based on an objective analysis of Presidential Exit Poll Data). This assertion is primarily based on three highly plausible suppositions that would have emerged, demographically, had Rice been chosen as the Republican Vice Presidential candidate, that could have decisively altered the outcome of the 2008 Presidential Election of Barack Obama.
In particular, Rice s presence on the Republican ticket would have cut across and appealed to several crucial demographic constituencies that no other Republican possibly could in 2008 (or, for that matter, in 2012 either). Moreover, the selection of Rice would have averted the devastatingly negative Voter impact of Sarah Palin s perceived lack of readiness to become President that endured through Election Day. Whereas, had Romney been onboard as an equal member of such a political triumvirate paradigm, the frantic and impulsive vacillations displayed by John McCain that excruciatingly transpired in the two weeks following the onset of the Wall Street Economic Meltdown in mid September 2008, need not ever have occurred.
Further, this book will examine how John McCain and the Republican Party, during the 2008 Presidential campaign, allowed themselves to be essentially handcuffed and effortlessly painted into a corner by Barack Obama and the Democrats on several major campaign issues for which justifiable, principled departures from rigid Republican Doctrine did, and still do, exist today.
Additionally, the personality traits of both McCain and Obama are analyzed as a basis for projecting their respective presidential crisis decision-making potential; based on observable behavior and reaction to events that occurred during the 2008 campaign. A similar analysis details how both McCain and Obama, at crucial times during the campaign, allowed their respective insecurities and/or petty vindictiveness to cloud and potential jeopardize even their most overriding, single-minded ambition: To be elected President.
The daunting (and maybe insurmountable) outlook confronting the Republican Party in 2012 and beyond will also be explored. Indeed, for the Republican Party, after 2020, the future looks even more bleak; at which time, if nothing materially changes, the Democrat Party will dominate the White House as the only remaining viable National Political Party.
As to the immediate future, a valid and objective Voter Expectation of the Republican Party is that their criticism of the Obama Democrat Administration will be accompanied by thoughtful, comprehensive alternative solutions. Moreover, it is axiomatic that Voters will, typically, not opt to change horses in the middle of the stream unless 1) the party in power seeking re-election is perceived not only as a troubled presidency (1980: Carter); but, as an additional prerequisite, 2) the opposition party a) has detailed alternative solutions and b) can articulate them (1980: Reagan).

The 2006 elections will be remembered as the year when the center of power in American politics shifted from traditional top-down central broadcasters to new bottom-up decentralized activists in the blogosphere and netroots. The authors give firsthand accounts of the burgeoning power of the netroots to determine the outcome of political contests, most notably as when the national balance of power was tipped by Jim Webb's rag-tag army of bloggers and netroots activists. They assess the prospects for Netroots 2.0: whether the netroots hordes will crash the party or work out an uneasy cohabitation with the traditional party power elite. The 2006 elections will be remembered as the year when the center of power in American politics shifted from traditional top-down central broadcasters to new bottom-up decentralized activists in the blogosphere and netroots. The authors give firsthand accounts of the burgeoning power of the netroots to determine the outcome of political contests, most notably as when the national balance of power was tipped by Jim Webb's rag-tag army of bloggers and netroots activists who provoked and exposed the gaffe that proved fatal to George Allen's senatorial bid. Veteran online campaigners Feld and Wilcox recount and analyze many other political campaigns in which netroots activism was decisive or instructive, including:* U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's downfall. *Tim Kaine's election as Virginia govenor. *Howard Dean's and Wes Clark's presidential campaigns. *Ned Lamont's primary victory over Joe Lieberman. The authors conclude with an assessment of the prospects for Netroots 2.0: Will the netroots hordes crash the party or will they work out an uneasy cohabitation with the traditional party power elite? The foreword is written by Markos (Kos) Moulitsas Zuniga, founding editor of the world's biggest political blog, Daily Kos.