Converting a Republican friend. (An Update!)

[Blue-Jay]

The original was posted in GD last week, but I figured you folks would appreciate this as well.

Here's the background: (read it first, please) http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1497857

Update: My friend at work approached me today to tell me that she bought the Richard Clark book and the Woodward book as well. She said that she was "very interested" in learning more about the points I was bringing up concerning the * administration.

I found out today that she is:
Pro-choice
Anti-War on Drugs
Pro-Gay Marriage
Anti-Iraq War

Sounds like a Liberal, right? Hell, YEAH she is!

Her problem is that she's (until recently) been uninterested in politics and voted Republican because "that's what's she has always done." Yeah. It seems weird to me too, but that is the kind of mondset that we're dealing with. For her entire life, she has figured that voting Democratic means voting for "welfare moms". (Thank you Lee Atwater! May you continue wishing for air-conditioning...)

At any rate, I THINK I GOT ONE TO START THINKING! My next project is her best friend. The friend will be a "harder sell", but I think I can do it, if I use the facts that are available to me.

I'd like to thank DU and it's evil denizens for helping me to present the truth in a non-confrontational way. That's the key, baby. Listen, and then shoot their misconceptions down.

w00t! Another Ohio vote will favor us in November!

-Jay-

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. GOOD JOB

by the way, as Moore has pointed out, over half of us ARE LIBERAL

Just that Liberal has been dirtied

[Blue-Jay]

6. I think that we equal much more that half.

Even <choke> Libertarians agree with us on a lot of issues, although their reasons are based solely on saving time & money. The problem with the people who tend to be uninterested/uneducated in politics is that they focus on ONE issue (abortion, homersexshuls, drugs, welfare, "terra", etc...) instead of looking at the big picture. Educating the "casual observer" is our greatest hill to climb.

We can do it, though. Spell it out to your friends. Voting is not about "us or them". It's about "We The People". Let them know that the health of a nation is more important than their tax returns. The few extra dollars they (might) spend is an investement in the future. It's better to have money to spend than to borrow money from your grandchildren.

[SayitAintSo]

2. Good Work !!! She is what I call a "Congenital Republican"

They vote and have a political identity they either passively inherited or ignorantly adopted - without deliberately taking action based on rational, empirical data. If you play twenty "political questions" with these guys - they may be liberals and don't know it !!!! Thats the beauty. We ought to make a valiant effort to convert all Congenital Republicans .... There is a great number of them out there - prime for the picking !!! Just converted my sister ( whew .....)

Again, great work ! Keep it up ! :toast:

[roguevalley]

3. This is great news. I'm proud of you, honey. And her. :)

[burrowowl]

4. Tell them to

read Kevin Phillips Wealth and Democracy. Will hit them where the pocketbook is.

[LynzM]

5. Awesome!!

I'm working on a friend and her husband, at the moment... she's a politics-ignorant type, a 'blank slate'... I want to convince her to vote Kerry, instead of not voting at all! Got her to register, so that's a start!

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Working on some of our youth

yesterday the ever so lovely draft came up and boy they really
do not get it

When did this start? Honey been going on since at least 2001...

but, but...

After a lot of buts they sat there stunned. I hope we, to a point, scared them into voting

[fudge stripe cookays]

9. Good work!

I did this at Einstein Brothers one day-- just walked up to a bunch of high school boys (complete strangers) having lunch off campus, and asked them what they thought of the president.

When they whooped and hollered, I calmly explained that they would be drafted by the next year if he was re-elected.

And I explained that I wanted them to be able to go to college, hang out with pretty girls, party and drink too much if they wanted, and be what they wanted to be, instead of being dead soldiers. And that knowing the neighborhood they hailed from, their parents probably called people like me crazy liberals, and declared that the President was a good man.

I then told them that there was more to the good man that they knew. And to please search the internet for information. (I gave them some lists of sites I'd made)

They told me their government teacher had helped them get registered to vote, so that was good.

When I walked off, I'm sure their reaction was "Who was that crazy b*^&#?" But I hope I got them interested enough to check things out themselves.

[fudge stripe cookays]

8. You're my idol!

That is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO cool! Good luck taking on the friend. I have confidence in you!

If I had voted when I was younger (yes, a cardinal sin that I feel unbearable guilt for now...) I would probably have been a congenital Republican too.

Both my parents were "don't raise my taxes" Republicans. I'm glad I finally educated myself enough to know what I was doing, and brought mom along to the Democratic party with me in my awakening.

[eileen from OH]

10. That is so excellent

One at a time, babeeeee, one at a time.

I'm gonna post my encounter with a Republican-but-I-don't-know-why in a few min.

eileen from OH

[prolesunited]

11. Keep up the great work!

You know we're counting on you to carry Ohio. Be sure to add another notch to our side of the ballot box. :-)

[johnnie]

12. It's too bad....

..that not everyone who votes Republican because "that's what I have always done", or "because my parents were" can have an open mind as your coworker does. I have a friend who refuses to even listen to some facts. It's very frustrating because she holds many or our beliefs and concerns. She is from Texas and her parents have met dubya and they think he is the savior. I have discussed some issues with her before, but she refuses to open up her thinking. She got really pissed off at me once for telling her that it worries me that so many uninformed people vote, and that's when we get in to the shit we do.
And of course her usual response when backed against the wall is...Clinton's penis...blah blah blah... Oh well, I'll keep trying.