I think that I converted a very simple minded yet very nice repug

[Melodybe]

earlier this week. He and his brother helped me set up my Dean table and when he first found out that I was campaigning for Dean he said "Howard Dean!? Why!?!" in a very disgusted voice. His brother, who was obviously older, a democrat, and a totally cool guy, told him to shut the hell up. This started a rather lengthy conversation where I basically whipped out every GOP lie the guy had heard and told him the facts. His brother stood there and agreed with every word.

The brother informed me that the only reason that junior was a repub is because all his idiot frathead friends are. He said that he used to be Democrat. I told him if he didn't believe me go to google and just look around. He seemed kind of ashamed of himself once he was more informed about what a monster Bu$h really is. I was nice to him, but I know that when whilst speaking my passion for the subject has a tendency to come off like I am yelling at the person rather then just being mad about the topic.

Anyway I gave him some Dean stuff and told him to check out the websites for all the Democrat candidates, surely he will like one of our guys. He may still talk repug around his friends but I bet a million dollars that on the ballot he will be democrat.

[rumguy]

1. good job...one at a time we will win them over...

[POed_Ex_Repub]

2. It's kinda like making a steal in basketball..

It's a two vote swing ;-) Good job!

[shockingelk]

3. good job

I know of a Repub who is not voting for Bush because in a debate about abortion, someone asked her "So, do you thing a woman should receive the death penalty for having an abortion?" ... it made everything fall in place for here regarding the wrongness of invading Iraq.

[radfringe]

4. couple two-three arguments I use

1. For Hunters and Anglers: Bush*'s environmental policies threaten your favorite hunting/fishing spots. "relaxed" rules would eventually mean your favorite spots will become polluted/destroyed, this means no fish or other game. Pollution in the waterways means the fish you want to catch and eat will either no longer be there or will be unsafe to eat.
usually I get the "...industries self-regulate..." argument - my response - industries/corporations etc are interested in making money, they work for their stock holders - considering the scandals surrounding companies like Enron, Aldelphia, mutual funds, etc that were supposedly "self-auditing" and turns out they were cooking the books - why would you trust them to be "self-regulating" when it comes to other issues like environmental concerns?

2. for the "I drink only bottled water, because local water sucks..." crowd: you drink only bottled water because local water sucks and this is ok with you? First - why does the local water suck? Polluted, contaminated, fears of getting sick from drinking the water and this is ok with you? Wouldn't it be better if there was "safe" drinking water?
Secondly: do you cook with bottled water? do you brush your teeth with bottled water? do you shower with bottled water? If you won't drink the water then why the hell would you cook, brush your teeth and take a bath in sucky water?

3. "Tax and Spend" argument crowd: I got into a discussion on this yesterday with a co-worker. PA just upped the state income tax, co-worker came into my cubical and smirked - "tax and spend Democrats....yadda yadda yadda"

I pointed out I had told him during the first Bush* taxcut that it would just result in a shifting of the tax burden from the federal level to the state/local level and that at that time he had said it was fine with him because local/state taxes would stay in the locality/state. So why is he bitching about it now?

I again pointed out that the reason state taxes have been upped is to cover the short-fall of federal funding, and the short-fall of federal funding occured because of Bush*'s tax-cuts -- so net result is that in reality NO ONE got a tax-cut except for Bush*'s buddies

The only thing the Bush* tax-cuts did was to shift the tax-burden from the federal level to the state/local level - so instead of paying the feds $XX dollars, you pay it to the state and/or local town/city

[aquart]

5. Democratic candidates.

It's a small difference, but it's the difference between accepting their version of us, or our own.

[cthrumatrix]

6. Great work...we all need to do this...outside of DU....I was at a Dean

meet-up last night and I beleive this has to be the strategy.

We can't out raise shrub...but you can share facts and stories that are documented but not pushed by the media that quite frankly shocks people.