A Psychologist Helps Repackage Democrats’ Message

ATLANTA — Democrats up and down the ballot have been trying to reverse the Republican rhetorical dominance that made “liberal” an unsavory label, and many have found help in a slender document percolating through their party’s hierarchy.

It is called the “Message Handbook for Progressives From Left to Center,” and, along with a companion piece on health care, it was created by Drew Westen, a psychology professor at Emory University here who was virtually unknown in political circles before this election cycle. Several Democratic consultants say it is the first systematic, data-driven effort to mold the language of the left to fit the sensibilities of the center.

Dr. Westen’s advice can be heard when Alisha Thomas Morgan, running for re-election to the Georgia House in a conservative suburb of Atlanta, uses the word “leadership” in place of “government” and speaks about the middle class instead of the poor.

Or when Andrew Gillum, a city commissioner in Tallahassee, Fla., who is fighting a ballot initiative against same-sex marriage, tells members of his predominantly black church of the human desire for dignity and respect instead of lecturing them on the evils of discrimination.

Democrats of higher office who have heard Dr. Westen have also shifted their rhetoric, as when Senator Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana, fending off a Republican challenger, not only says that “health care is a right for every citizen” but pointedly adds, “Particularly citizens who are working hard every day.”

Dr. Westen advises jettisoning wonkish 12-point plans in favor of direct emotional appeals that can compete with those evoked by Republicans using terms like “family values” and “the war on terror.”

“We are a centrist nation,” he said in an interview, “but people prefer center-left to center-right, even in conservative parts of the country, if they hear equally strong messages on both sides.”

Liberal candidates, especially those running in not-so-liberal territory, have latched on to his approach.

“There’s almost a rebirth, or a pride, that we can really talk about what we believe and not do so shamefully,” Mr. Gillum said, adding that Dr. Westen’s advice had given him the confidence to speak his mind even on conservative talk radio. “If we communicate it through our stories and our real-life examples, if they don’t agree with you then they can at least understand where you come from.”

Dr. Westen’s ideas began to catch on when he was writing “The Political Brain,” a scientific explanation of the central role of emotion in politics, published in 2007, that urged Democrats to stop cowering and fight back.

Among those with whom he has had audiences are Howard Dean, the Democratic national chairman, and Young Elected Officials, a national group of left-leaning city council members and state legislators. During the primaries, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., now Senator Barack Obama’s running mate, recommended “The Political Brain” to his campaign staff. Bill Clinton is a fan.

Even Frank Luntz, the architect of many Republican rhetorical successes, says Dr. Westen is fostering a sea change.

“It’s as though the Republicans have fallen back 15 years in their communication,” Mr. Luntz said, “at the very moment when Democrats vaulted ahead 15 years.”

Mr. Luntz said the Obama campaign often mirrored Dr. Westen’s approach. Though Dr. Westen has not worked for the campaign in an official capacity, he has offered guidance, both directly and in his Huffington Post columns.

Instead of using euphemisms like “pro-choice” and “reproductive health,” his handbook suggests, liberal candidates might insist that it is un-American for the government to tell men and women when to start a family or what religious beliefs to follow, arguments that test well in focus groups with conservatives and independents. On illegal immigration, he recommends, candidates who have said their plan would “allow” immigrants to become citizens should instead say they will “require” it.

“The idea,” Dr. Westen said, “is to start to rebrand progressives using language that’s as evocative as the language of the other side, and stop using phrases that just turn people off.”

The handbook does not offer a script so much as a menu of options, each of which was poll-tested against conservative arguments. On economics, for example, one message begins with “I want to see the words ‘Made in America’ again.” Another reads, “We need leaders who don’t just talk about family values but actually value families.”

Celinda Lake, a prominent Democratic strategist in Washington, said of the handbook: “I think people have been overjoyed to have it. I don’t think we have rooted our message in the kind of systematic understanding of values and networks of values that Drew uses.”

Dr. Westen is not the first to try to whip Democratic messaging into shape. But several political consultants said his scientific approach — based largely on recent advances in the study of how the brain reacts to political speech — and his advocacy of plain talk made him more effective.

Bill Jones, a moderate Democrat in a conservative, wealthy section of suburban Atlanta, said talking to Dr. Westen had helped him make the decision to run for Congress against the Republican incumbent, Representative Tom Price.

Among other recommendations, Dr. Westen encouraged Mr. Jones to make his background as an Air Force veteran a prominent part of his biography. “It wasn’t a contrived approach like ‘how can we create a persona?’ ” Mr. Jones recalled. “It’s ‘be the person you are.’ ”

In a candidates’ forum at a church on a recent Saturday afternoon, Bobbie Smith, 77, listened while her husband, a veteran, exchanged war stories with Mr. Jones. Ms. Smith, who identified herself as a conservative-leaning independent, said she had seen Mr. Jones’s television commercials, co-produced by Dr. Westen. “I liked the down-to-earth talk,” she said. “Common words for common people.”

Not everyone has jumped wholeheartedly onto the Westen bandwagon. Though praising Dr. Westen’s work, Will Marshall, president of the Progressive Policy Institute, the research wing of the Democratic Leadership Council, said he worried that it focused too much on the message rather than substance.

But Paul Begala, a commentator and Democratic strategist who was an adviser to President Clinton, said that with candidates like Mr. Jones, Dr. Westen was helping to shape the future of the party.

“The fact that they’re doing this in Georgia is really, really, really important,” Mr. Begala said. “Great politicians often come out of enemy territory. Ronald Reagan came from Hollywood, and it made him tougher and smarter.”