At his first post election rally yesterday in Cincinnatti, President-Elect Trump with his trademark hand pumping and trumping gesture said, "People pouring into our country from Middle East".
This is of course a far fetched outlandish statement, no where close to the truth. Much more people come from India which is farther east of Middle East and China, which is Far East. So also East Europeans, Latinas - far more than those migrate from the Middle East.
Yet, for Middle Americans from the middle class, it connects well with the image of marauding Muslim killers from Middle East, coming in droves to snatch their life and freedom.
Trump went on, reflecting on his victory - "It's so big. It's so enormous. It's so amazing". His bombadistic words punched with superlatves like "Great", "Fantastic" etc immediately strikes a cord with the applauding audience.
Why it's so ? More than the actual object, it is its image which virtually matters. Imagery laced with emotions created inside the brain has a longer lasting effect, which casts itself into a larger than life impression, which facts or reasoning may not fathom. It probably explains why we remember the emotional moments in life more than the moments defined by logic.
Another politician who has mastered this art of imagery is Narendra Modi. Politics and the image associated with it is after all a matter of perception, the reality be damned.
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