What if each of us called our Republican family and friends and tried

[mahina]

Last edited Thu Sep 3, 2020, 04:23 PM - Edit history (1)

To get them to understand why we’re voting for Joe?

I know it’s been a lot of years we just haven’t been talking to those people but what really is there to lose, other than little bit a time and irritation? I don’t know if mass media can really catch up paid advertising is expensive and not always targeted properly. We personally know if there’s nobody else that can reach them better

I welcome your opening arguments, conversation starters, outlines, and suggestions below. It can’t hurt and has a chance to help.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. I don't know ten Republicans.

If I did, they wouldn't be my friends.

[brooklynite]

8. And that's a problem...

If you're argument is that no Republican is worth engaging with, you're 1) applying a very broad brush to people who don't see the world the way you do, and 2) you're risking Biden's re-election chances by limiting the pool of voters who can be approached.

My wife's secretary voted for Trump in 2016. She could have said: "No Republican can be my friend", but she stayed engaged. Her secretary is now supporting Biden.

[Yeehah]

20. At this point in history,

anyone who identifies as a republican is either a racist or a moron.

So, they're not going to be my friends. But if one of my republican acquaintances seems receptive, I would make an effort to convince them to stop being a racist and/or moron.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

23. Since I've been holed up in my house since March,

I don't have the opportunity to do much engaging these days, and life's too damn short as it is to try to argue with people who think Trump is fit to be anything but a permanent resident of a federal penitentiary. Where I live you won't find many Trumpers anyhow, and I'm not about to go out looking for them.

[leftyladyfrommo]

2. I think it's too late. The ones that are left are so

emotionally involved that nothing will get through.

[CrispyQ]

3. You first.

But I'm going to check back to see what others say.

[mahina]

16. Of course! On it.

2/2 so far

[marlakay]

4. The few I talk to are solid

There is the rich ones in Southern CA, and the making more money one that doesn't want to pay more taxes. So the ones I know are all about money.

[MaryMagdaline]

5. Time is better spent GOTV

I raised the same question when I volunteered for a GOTV campaign for governor. They trained us that if anyone resisted in the least wish them a good day and move on ... get our people out.

I just signed up to do two weekends of calling. I can usually call 50 people per session.

[ret5hd]

6. What if each of us...

sent the phone numbers of 10 republican family and friends to mahina and let him/her figure out why we don’t talk to them anymore?

Just sayin’, I like my idea better.

[RandiFan1290]

7. Never met a republicon that wasn't a racist.

I don't associate with racists.

[Croney]

9. Ten Republican friends I don't have, but ten such family members

I do have. I'd rather have my toe amputated without anesthesia.

[dalton99a]

10. There is something irredeemably wrong with people who still support the piece of shit.

They are not worth your time or energy.

GOTV and outnumber them.

[W_HAMILTON]

11. You'd do even better to get people around you that think like you to vote.

Or get them registered to vote. I took that approach in 2018.

I knew my sister had the same sort of political thoughts as I did, but she hadn't voted in so long, I assumed she wasn't even registered. I tried to help her get registered and found out she was already registered. I went with her to vote in her precinct to help her get over any anxiety of voting for the first time in years, if not decades.

My mom also hadn't voted in quite a long time, so I helped her apply for an absentee ballot application and we went through our choices together when the ballot arrived.

On another message board I frequent, I found a user that I interact with every so often and had some similar politics to myself and encouraged him to go get registered and to vote, and even provided him with links on how to do so. After the election, he proudly told me he voted for the first time.

Little things like these can make a big difference, if we were all to do them. I understand call banking and all of that, but just getting those around you who you know are Democratic-friendly to get off their lazy keisters and VOTE would be so significant for our cause. It also requires very little effort, but it does take vigilance to keep on them and even help them (if need be) to vote.

[mahina]

28. Hey that is fantastic!

[Cousin Dupree]

12. If trump supporters can't see the light at this point, they're hopeless. It would be easier to

talk to a wall.

[cayugafalls]

13. That can be a hard thing to do if you are not prepared for what can happen.

There is an interesting book (I've ordered a copy to help me with my brother) that explains how to have a dialogue with people on the right. He has a really good talk show in the local public radio station once a week and hopefully his book will help me as I love my brother and wish we could talk more about how I feel without making him mad or angry.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FGYJ179

I think for me, in the past when I have talked with my brother, I have tried to get him to see things from my viewpoint by using some of the same tricks that they are used to on Fox News and the local right wing radio stations. I simply say things like "How can it be moral or ethical to separate children from their parents for trying to escape the terror of the drug cartels and their grip on the lives of so many poor people in Mexico, help me understand it?" It focuses the issue on morals and ethics and does not imply that HE is a bad person, but it gets him to think about his answer as if he can help me understand. Which has led to some very good conversations without anyone getting angry.

I'll know more I suppose once I read Egberto's book. I am hoping to have a good conversation with my brother about the current political situation before the election.

[CrispyQ]

30. I watched a video of Egberto's this week.

I hadn't heard of him before. The vid was good. He pointed out how the media never shows the viewers just how small the protest areas are compared to the rest of the city, so the Con and repubs get away with implying the entire city of Portland/Kenosha is under siege, when really it's an incredibly small area. Where is the drone footage? Or even a map of the city with the protest area highlighted?

[luvs2sing]

14. Had a hard time coming up with ten.

Two already broke up with us for being too liberal, seven are family members who are total lost causes, and one is a choir friend and former priest who has already come out in favor of Biden.

[FakeNoose]

15. This would have been a good plan 50 years ago

... before hate radio and Faux news and Russian trolling on the internet.

It's all water over the dam now. I can't see it making a difference.

There are some families that still have civil discourse and reasonable conversation even now in 2020. I believe those people might make a difference, but only with certain family members or close friends. Other than that, most of the Chump-Humpers are hopelessly lost.

I'm a Baby Boomer and we grew up during the years of the Vietnam War protests. During that awful time, many parents and grandparents who initially supported the war (because they thought it was WW2.0) came to see that whole thing was illegal, immoral and stupid. Eventually it even hastened the downfall of Richard Nixon, I believe. So opinions about the war did change, but it took almost 10 years and 55,000 lives.

[mtngirl47]

17. I've had this thought in the back of my head---

What if I said ....this or that....to my brother or my sister or my mom?

We've spent almost 10 years not talking about politics so that we can have a relationship of any kind.

I think the last time we had a political discussion it was about John Crawford that was killed in a WalMart in the Dayton, Ohio area. He was looking at a BB Gun that was for sale and shot to death for being black. Some of my family live up there and I was shocked and dismayed that they blamed the victim and also rolled out the man's arrest record as proof that he deserved to be killed. I threw up my breakfast just knowing that members of my family were actually racist as fuck.

There are some days that I can't even talk to my family when Trump or the Republicans have committed some egregious act. I'm afraid I'll scream expletives at them for bringing this scourge upon our country.

I think I'll keep calling the Independents and Democrats in my county.

[mahina]

21. Thank you. I'm sure it will help to call them too.

I was just thinking if they could at least understand because I’ll be here or hyper edited little clips and they get all up in arms about stuff that’s not even true.

If I don’t try to make them wrong if I just listen to them and if I just tell them why I care about Joe winning what he means, even if they don’t vote for Joe which I don’t honestly expect, at least they might not vote for the other guy

[LAS14]

18. I'm afraid I don't know a single Republican family or friend.

Granted, we're not gregarious people, but still. I have met TWO Trump supporters in the last 4 years. One was a neighbor in our condo who told me how distressed he was the people were not respecting "our president." Is it prejudice to have noticed that he is an immigrant from Argentina with a German name?

The other was a woman in line at an outdoor nursery. We had a congenial chat about plants and then she made a comment in support of Trump. It was clear she was trying to bait me. I just didn't respond.

That's it.

[cwydro]

29. The only supporter of that moron that I know is one of my black neighbors.

I still like him as a person, but we’ve never brought that subject up since the day he told me he was a fan.

I don’t get it.

[procon]

19. First, they don't care why I'm voting for Biden

because if I'm not voting for Trump then I'm the enemy. End of discussion.

Most of my family are entrenched FauxNews Republicans and belligerent Trump cultists. They've swallowed all the lies and sucked up all the propaganda to the point of being irrevocably brainwashed. They cannot be reached, you have to understand that, they live in an alternate reality where lies and conspiracy theories have replaced truth and facts. They are opposed to any differing POV that challenges the fake news pablum they believe to be genuine and trustworthy.

I entertain a wistful fantasy that my beloved brother might experience a mystical moment of nirvana when the (LED) light bulbs come to full bright and he suddenly is full woke and grasped what a fool he's been. The stunning realization that he has been cuckolded, duped, hornswaggled, bamboozled and flimflammed for years would come as a hard shock.

Yeah, he would still be a Republican, but he would see Trump for the con man he has always been. Even if he could not swallow voting for Biden, then he would stay home in quiet protest against the Great Deceiver who had stolen years from his life.

[mahina]

22. Good luck.

I feel you.

[H2O Man]

24. Interesting.

I only have two individuals from my extended family that are pro-Trump. One is a cousin, the other a distant cousin. Keep in mind that my father was one of 14 siblings, and added with my mother's side, there are a heck of a lot of us.I do talk to the two Trumpers, but I do not attempt to change their minds, so much as open them.

I'm friends with many people, going back to chums from grade school. The majority of those who gradu8ated and went on to get a college education are Democrats. Lots of those that did not go on to college are Biden supporters. And others, including those that dropped out of school between grades 8 and 10, are Trump supporters. I talk with all of them from time to time.

I have one sibling who never voted until 2016. He recognized that Trump posed a serious threat to the Constitution and national security. I had tried for decades to register and vote. Better late than never.

Thank you for your post. After reading through it, I was reminded of something that Rubin "Hurricane" Carter once said to me: "A closed mind is like a closed room, in that both tend to be stuffy." I appreciate your open mind! Recommended.

[mahina]

27. Thanks H2Oman.

Aloha.

[SMC22307]

25. TRUMP DESTROYING SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE (not shouting)...

by permanently eliminating the payroll tax. I'm convinced that this is the ONLY thing that will get through to many voters.

[mnhtnbb]

26. I gave up on my Trump humping always votes R brother years ago

when I tried to appeal to him as a scientist not to support Bushie boy. One of my nephews told me his dad (my brother) always votes Republican because of taxes. My wears her Christianity on her shoulder sister in law is also a Trump Humper. I 've known what a phony she is for over 50 years as I knew her before my brother met her, in high school.

I leave it to my brother's kids to attempt to change their parents' minds.