Freeper co-worker. . .

[daligirrl]

Took me to dinner tonight! He wants to smoke the peace-pipe. I'm amazed at the transformation that has taken place in my workplace. . . he wants more info from me. I have posted about this guy before. . . he is a major Republican fundraiser in the area. I have noticed a wild look in his eye as of late. .. he is really interested in getting "hard evidence" that he has been wrong about Bush. He thinks that the convention will be very "tired". I diagnose "cognitive dissonance".

[salinen]

1. What I want to know

do pukes eat with the same mouth they spew hate from?

[michaelzef]

3. Dinner

Was he a gentleman?

[daligirrl]

7. He was a gentleman. . .

And paid the bill. Always a plus. In addition, he shared his disgust about the Swift Boat scandal. . .saying that he doesn't believe a word about it. He's not going to vote for Kerry, don't get me wrong about that. . .but I'm glad that he felt that I could give him some info about things. He does have a certain amount of respect for me, I have discovered.

[newyawker99]

30. Hi michaelzef!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[daligirrl]

4. Yes. . I've seen it. .

He has been a hateful person. . .I hope that he can see the light, though.

[babylon_system]

8. Probably just wants to get lucky

Sorry, but that's a bipartisan fact of life.

[daligirrl]

13. I've worked with this guy

for about 7 years. He's not making a move. And dinner was not all wine and roses, either. We argued. I didn't convert him into a left-leaning Democrat. But the fact that this happened at all is extremely curious. And he wants me to email him some links to "factual evidence" of *'s shortcomings.

[Booster]

25. Good God, you mean he can't find any proof

about Bush's shortcomings on his own. I find that amazing. All you have to do is type and you come up with all kinds of things. I hope he decides not to vote at all, but I don't buy the fact that he needs evidence. Good luck though.

[iconoclastic cat]

2. Good Luck! Be gentle with him -- cognitive dissonance resolves painfully.

[daligirrl]

5. No one was more surprised than me. . .

Lately he has been trying to talk to me a lot (I'm pretty open at work about my political leanings). He mostly won't talk to me, but today he wanted to talk, talk, talk. And he wasn't rude.

[iconoclastic cat]

12. Did you send him this link:

http://www.republicansforkerry.org/

[daligirrl]

14. Thank you., Cat. . .

I will! It's everything in a nutshell.

[iconoclastic cat]

15. Also, here's a thread by DU's resident GOP pal, GOPAgainstGW:

Here's the thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x687247

Breaking tradition, Kerry-Edwards and the DNC announced this morning on TV that they WILL campaign throughout the Republican National Convention and run ads on TV!

Bottom line is everyone is really pissed over all the Bush-GOP fraudulent ads and SBVT continued crap.

This is great news!

PS: We have received several emails, that the SBVT fraud has pissed so many people off, that money is just pouring in to drag O'Neill and his SBVT frauds down, both from Democrats AND Republican interests, like us.

------------------------------
Beltway and Texas Republicans
Against Bush-Cheney ’04, Inc.
------------------------------
**********

Note: I asked GOPvGW for his org's URL, but he or she has not sent it to me yet. Read that thread, however: This person is pissed, this person is a Republican, and this person has posted 160+ times since Aug. 22!

[A_Possum]

18. Hey, GOPvGW is not a "turncoat!"

I know you were kidding, but you aren't a turncoat just because you rethink your political opinions. You're exercising your freedom.

:toast:

[iconoclastic cat]

19. There, I changed it. No offense meant.

Sincerely,
IconCat, resident dumbass.

[iconoclastic cat]

21. And I should add that I deeply admire and appreciate GOPvGW's efforts

He or she is doing some great work with their group. I wish I could find a website for them, but Google isn't turning anything up.

[alittlelark]

Be very nice and non-judgemental

Stress that the media being owned by big corporations is the reason he thinks the way he does.

He sounds like a thinking person - he will see the light.


My hubbys best friend was like that, and he has turned!

[daligirrl]

9. I will add that. . .

I am a Black woman. . .his worst nightmare! Especially an educated one. I was completely floored when he asked me to go to dinner after work. I almost said no, but I was way too curious. He didn't even seem embarrassed to be seen with me, and this is a pretty small city.

[Dogmudgeon]

6. This is getting much more common

I think Bush's craziness and destructiveness are jolting a lot of conservatives awake. They're faced with a complete re-evaluation of what they believe in.

How do you help? Ask the guy about his vision of what a good society would be like. Get him back to the essential parts of politics, away from the ideologies and philosophies. It should be an enlightening excursion.

--bkl

[daligirrl]

11. In the past. . .

I have always asked him, "what makes you a Republican"? He doesn't have an answer, and I think for him it has a lot to do with race. It's more respectable to be a Republican than to be in the Klan. I have heard so many ugly statements from him on race. Which is why it is so weird that we went to an Appleby's together.

[AmandaRuth]

10. suggest that he listen to AirAm

if it available in your area.

Lucky you, I work with a bunch of freepers, they can be frustrating,

[krkaufman]

23. Careful there. AAR may be a bit too harsh...

... for a right-winger to jump right into, depending on which shows they listen to.

However, a little AAR listening is a good lab exercise to demonstrate what a true "liberal" media would sound like. Have him compare what he hears from a couple days of AAR listening to what he's heard on network and cable news; or take him to "Fahrenheit 9/11" and discuss why we hadn't seen 80% or more of what Moore shows in the "so called liberal media"?

As another poster mentioned, a first step would be understanding that the "mainstream" news/print media is corporate-owned and corporate-biased.

[daligirrl]

24. I think he's pretty open at this point. . .

I also didn't mention that his Bush-Cheney bumper sticker is gone. I think he's in the closet right now and wants to find out some truth.

[krkaufman]

29. Very skillful of you

No reason to challenge him and cause a relapse through defensiveness.

I wish some of those "Republicans for Kerry/against Bush" groups offered hotlines for deprogramming of "potentials." :)

[gratuitous]

31. You have nine weeks

You don't have to hit him over the head with it all. Just keep feeding him information as he asks for it, and don't overwhelm him all at once. It can be very difficult changing one's perspective, and your very trenchant question, "Why are you a Republican?" is spot on. It's easy to remember, he sees things that reinforce his belief all the time, but he's just as likely to see things that make him question his political affiliation.

If he's fed up with the whole process, that's just what the Bush campaign wants. People who just cede the playing field, and say, "They're all a bunch of corrupt yahoos. Who cares anymore?" Well, the country still has to be run, programs still have to go along. If you leave it laying around, the absolute worst elements will pick it up and who knows what mischief they'll do? They could even start a war if they wanted to!

[salinen]

16. Could you at least

convince him not to vote?

[daligirrl]

17. The feeling that I got

was that he is disgusted with the whole political process. . . he is a lifelong Republican and was very active throughout the '90's. He has 5 kids, has taken a pay cut at work and is wondering when his ship is going to come in. His party promised him that. . .I don't think he will vote in the election, but don't think that he could bring himself to vote for a Democrat.

[ellie]

20. Before the religious wackos

took over the Republican party, I thought it was important that we have two different parties sharing power in a checks and balances arrangement. I don't feel that way anymore. The Republican party of today is one of dangerous extremism. I feel sorry for traditional Republicans because their party has been hijacked. If someone wanted to talk to me about it, that is the position I would take.

[daligirrl]

22. He is not one of the

religuous wackos. . .but a hardcore Repub nonetheless. . . and I guess sometimes that can be just like a religion.

[katym]

26. If you another topic to interest him...

Tell him about Bushs mercury policies...I have been following it intently since February, though a lot of it has been in the news lately.
Bush is allowing 3 times the amount of mercury to be put in the air, and had staffers at the white house "edit" a scientific document to play down the toxic effects of mercury....interestingly enough, many of his huge financial backers in his current campaign are coal-fired power plants...the ones that pollute mercury the most....

[Mz Pip]

27. Have him read

The Bush Betrayal bu James Bovard. It's a very detailed analysis of how BushCo has betrayed conservatives. I'm about half way through this book and it amazes me how any true conservative could vote for Bush with his record on spending, civil liberites, and foreign policy.

Sometimes it's eaier to argue with them on their own turf.

MzPip
:dem:

[QERTY]

28. He Just Wants To Jump Your Bones

He's probably posting every move he makes in freeperville. Maybe you should go there more often to see what kind of people are there. It's like a Nazi party member suddenly expressing interest in Judaism. Something ain't right. I'm not saying there can't be conversions, just that it is not common for right-wing extremists to suddenly become sincerely interested in centrism, let alone progessive ideas.