To call it "appealing to the emotions instead of the reason" is a stupid cliche. All appeals are to ideas. No candidate says: "Let me awaken your angry feelings." He must stir up the feeling by giving it something to attach to. Electioneering ideas are familiar ideas ready-charged with strong emotion: Die rather that yield; For God and Country; no more immigrants, soak the rich, more well-paid jobs, my opponent is a crook - these are ideas as truly as the Ten Commandments. And strange new ideas such as ecology and abortion can acquire the same sort of familiarity and emotional force.

---Jaques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence