Another republican has turned

[adarling]

Just wanted to let everyone know, one member of the dark side has turned to the light. A friend of mine, who was republican all his life (mainly due to his parents i think) told my girlfriend and me last night that he is so ashamed he believed in republicans and their ideas for so long and realized he wasn't one.
He is gay and it always bothered me that he was a republican and i would tell him that sometimes because these people were working against him and they were trying to take his natural rights that he should have away(marriage, adoption, etc.) and why he believed this.
He told us last night that the reason he is switching is because of a sociology class he was taking here at Indiana University (we are all in our early 20's) and the class was studying propaganda and almost like having the veil lifted from his eyes, he saw what Bush and co. was doing and he became furious. He was ashamed that he let this get by him and realized the benefit of education and realized he was so stubborn and relied too much on what his parents thought. This was amazing, because i have never had this experience before, having someone have his eyes opened (that i know personally) because every republican i have battled with have been so thick headed it felt like a lost cause.

The only way people will change is through education and i am going to do what i can do help that. Posting information everywhere, getting the truth out is the best possible answer. Its funny cause i think some people will think that his professor was a evil dem/liberal that was promoting his agenda, and it wasn't. They were studying communist propaganda at the time and he realized how similar the tactics were to what Bush had been saying for so long about the "conflict" in Iraq. I really believe now people are waking up and beginning to see the truth that has been shadowed for so long. We work people to death in this country and no one has time or energy to pay attention, but i think that the shit has piled up so high people can't ignore it anymore.

I am just glad my friend woke up :)

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Glad to hear the good news

Usually it takes a while for folks to wake up and realize that the repukes aren't doing things to help them, and often doing things to hurt them. Let's hope more education will open more eyes.

[Demeter]

2. Congratulations From Ann Arbor!

You are a good friend.

[BOSSHOG]

3. A great LTTE last week in the Sun Herald of Gulfport

A life long republican said he was extremely disappointed and mad at bush. That he trusted him and gave him money and now the war is a disaster. He almost admitted republican party complicity in the fiasco but not quite. It was a nice read. Some with functioning grey matter are not too proud to admit they were tragically wrong.

[adarling]

5. its happening everywhere

my hope is starting to get stronger cause for awhile it had been waning.

[JDPriestly]

4. Thanks for the encouraging news.

The Bush administration had often been compared to Hitler, but its tactics are actually also like those of the Communists. That's because the NAZIs and the Communists used very similar methods. That is why I am somewhat suspicious when DUers write admiringly of some of the extreme leftist South American dictators. The end does not justify the means -- not for the left or for the right.

[blue cat]

6. I don't get gay republicans

What is it with them?

[adarling]

7. money? n/t

[PsN2Wind]

11. They should all be told what Bill Maher

said to Andrew Sullivan. "If they had their way, they would MAKE you pray until you like pussy"!!!

[MADem]

13. That man sure knows how to turn a phrase, doesn't he? n/t

[EST]

8. Congratulations to you and your friend!

Enlightenment comes in many forms and sometimes in disguise. If there were any fast and firm method for finding or assisting others to discover enlightenment, we'd all use it and life would be a lot easier. Keep at it, satisfaction is a rare gem, but, like the pearl of great price, is ultimately worth the effort to attain.

[Mel]

9. thank you for the good news

Please tell your friend not to feel ashamed he should be proud of his self for waking up!

I want to suggest a book for your friend David Brock's "Blinded by the Right" I think it might educate/inspire him as well may make him feel better. Brock is a smart guy and I think it took him a hell of a lot longer to wake than it has your friend.

Also, tell your friend about Brock's Media Matters.
Course, I'm telling you things that you've probably already done. ;)

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. Sociology classes are so underrated.

[gratuitous]

12. Good for your friend

And good for you. You stayed in relationship with your friend, listened to him work out his own Republican thoughts, added information to show him where those thoughts didn't jibe with his own deepest beliefs, and walked with him until he realized that he was on the wrong path.

He's entered a strange new world of progress and compassion. Help him have a soft landing.