General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: My republican racist dad is voting for Obama [View all]Old and In the Way
(37,540 posts)for a lot of people who have a life-long identification as a Republican. This tribal political identity (both sides) is not always based on a rational and sophisticated analysis of political philosophy - for many, it's simply based on a irrational hatred for "them" - in our case, Democrats. Could be a single incident where some Democrat did something on a very personal level to that person and that created a lifelong animosity...and the association got transferred to the entire party.
If this legislative fiasco drives home the complete hypocrisy of the republican agenda to a lot of lifelong, self-identifying Republicans, it will have been well worth it.
I think once a person reaches that qualitative decision point of political ID change, there's no turning back and we also benefit from the enthusiasm/outrage/energy of a political convert who'll work even harder than many Democrats to see today's Teapublican Party buried. I've know a couple of converts over the past 5 years that are now rabidly anti-Republican because they've came to realize that this Party was not promoting an agenda that was in their best interests. One, who I know really well, is constantly e-mailing me information and links - most of them I've been well aware of for some time, but for him, this constant discovery continues to generate more validation of his new-found disgust for his former Party. Before the conversion, you could supply all of the information you wanted and he wouldn't read it because he wouldn't believe it. His mind was closed. Now his mind is open and he's feeding himself. I suppose it can work the other way, but one interesting note - the only converts to Republicanism I see are by anonymous posters on the internet. "I used to be a Democrat, but now...". In real life, the few converts I've met or know all went to the light.