ONLINE EXCLUSIVE

ASCRS News
June 2023

The annual Government Relations symposium at the 2023 ASCRS Annual Meeting featured political analyst and journalist Mark McKinnon, who shared his thoughts about how to be effective in the current world of public policy and politics. “You want to use all the tools you can because it’s tough out there,” he said. “It’s not good enough to be the best or most experienced or to let the facts speak for themselves. The facts don’t speak for themselves; you have to speak for the facts.”

In the current landscape, you have to communicate, or you die, Mr. McKinnon said. Those who communicate most effectively win and get their agendas put forward.

Mr. McKinnon walked through the history of communicating and what’s been effective. “The most important thing for an organization like yours or candidate for office is to have clear and compelling rationale,” he said.

He discussed the rationales of political candidates, showing videos of Ted Kennedy, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump to highlight different ways these candidates demonstrated their reasons for running for office.

One of the most powerful components of a successful campaign is the ability to tell a story, he said. We’re attracted to stories and want things to line up in a way that makes sense to us. Mr. McKinnon said that Ronald Reagan did this very well because he understood being an actor, and he was a great communicator. To tell a story, Mr. McKinnon noted the backbone steps: 1) Identify a threat. 2) Identify the victim. 3) Identify the villain. 4) Establish a solution. 5) Reveal the hero.

Mr. McKinnon said it’s also important to articulate things in a matter of seconds. He joked that the attention span of a goldfish has been shown to be 7 seconds, and it’s 8 seconds for humans. “That’s how tight the window is that you need to effectively communicate,” he said.

Mr. McKinnon discussed his experience working on the campaign of George W. Bush, highlighting a promotional video where a clip of him misspeaking was left in to make him appear more authentic and vulnerable. He also shared a clip of Hillary Clinton tearing up on camera, noting the authenticity, and Mr. Trump’s non-scripted approach to most of his speaking appearances.

ASCRS Government Relations Committee Chair Parag Parekh, MD, asked Mr. McKinnon for thoughts on what ASCRS and physicians might want to keep in mind, aside from political parties and the 2024 election, to help get better reimbursement and access to vision-saving products.

“You’re doing the most important thing, which is recognizing the importance of doing something,” Mr. McKinnon said, adding that ASCRS and the ophthalmic community have a great story. “The hardest thing for candidates I’ve worked with is if you don’t have a story to tell,” he said. With many people fighting for pieces of the pie, the highly specialized people are the ones being penalized, he said. “Over and over again, I’ve seen the power of communicating. Just keep swinging,” he said, adding that the power of the story trumps everything.