Argument isn’t all about choices. It’s also about passion.

The most effective arguments often don’t change our mind. They change our priorities.

Argument means debating choices…doesn’t it? Either/or, right way versus wrong way? Innocent or guilty? A kid either plays outdoors or plays video games. Hamlet ponders whether to be or not to be. But is that always the question? Does persuasion always have to do with binary issues?

Not in politics, despite what we think we see online. And not in many other forms of persuasion. Successful political strategies focus on urgency and passion, boosting an issue’s importance in an audience’s mind. This helps explain why majority opinions often fail in Congress. Two thirds of Americans want to expand background checks on guns; yet legislation continues to fail to pass. A vast majority—and even a plurality of Republicans—believe that climate change is real and that humans are a big cause; yet scientists say our nation’s efforts to reduce carbon fall far behind what’s needed.

Yes, you can say that our political and legal system is increasingly stacked against these issues. But another reason comes from rhetoric. Agreement doesn’t necessarily mean passionate agreement. A minority that ranks an issue as a number-one priority often beats a majority that ranks the issue relatively low.

You can see this in a recent poll conducted in Minnesota just before the November election. Likely voters were asked what issues were most and least important. Here were the results, ranked from most important to least. 

1.     Crime

2.     Inflation

3.     Abortion

4.     Economy and Jobs

5.     Taxes

6.     Education

7.     Democracy and Voting

8.     Health Care

9.     Climate

10.  Housing

Notice that gun safety and climate change don’t even seem to enter the picture (unless “crime” covers gun control, which I doubt). So how do you move the opinion needle on an issue? 

First, make sure you’ve defined the issue with the right terms. Gun “safety” beats gun “control” by a mile. Americans want to be safe; the word “control” doesn’t test nearly as well in focus groups, for obvious reasons.

Second, make the issue immediate. This is the problem with carbon reduction. Climate change seems a long-term problem. Focus on immediate weather and argue that the floods and droughts are just the beginning. Talk about the current costs of weather disasters. Refer to what’s happening to homeowner insurance, now. Make the problem immediate, and urgent. Focus on your audience’s own selfish problems. (Yes, some audiences will respond passionately about the ethics of letting the impacts of climate affect the poorest populations who are the least to blame for the problem. But those same audiences probably already list climate as a priority.)

Third, label and repeat. Every weather problem is a climate problem. Every rise in the price of fruit, every tick-borne disease contracted by a neighbor, every lousy ski season or long hot summer…climate climate climate.

Argument is about much more than binary issues. It’s about the emotion that leads to action. And this covers more than just politics. I’ve trained Ivy League fundraisers to argue why potential donors should give to such wealthy institutions. These donors aren’t against education or these schools, but there are many other causes to fund. The trick is to raise the priority.

And if you happen to be a teenager who passionately wants your parent to buy you a car? Think beyond the either/or argument. The parent may not be opposed to the idea of your having a car, but she has other, competing priorities for her budget. The answer: raise the urgency. Talk about the safety of driving your own car, versus hitching rides with your drunken loser friends.

Raise the passion. Up the priority. Win the issue.