Another BRILLIANT strategy in the offings ...

[Fumesucker]

100. A lot of DUers seem to think that Southerners are naturally conservative..

Not any more so than anyone else, to a big extent it's the fact that they've never heard a non-conservative point of view articulated with any skill if at all.

John Cole is from West Virgina and fits that model very well, not a natural conservative but grew up hearing nothing but conservative rhetoric.

Such people can be reached and I do it from time to time but it takes a fairly subtle approach that nibbles away at the edges of their conservatism rather than confronting it head on which triggers automatic resistance. I'm working on a neighbor and pretty good friend at the moment, grew up in small town South and knows nothing other than conservatism but he's not really a natural for it.. It doesn't hurt that I have some skills he's quite eager to learn so he's sort of accepted me as a teacher about other things than politics to start with.

On the other hand I have family members it's impossible to reach at all, not every one but some of my family by marriage are to use a technical term nuttier than a department store fruitcake.