First order of business - take a technical writing class. Learn audience analysis, where you write to the comprehension level of your expected audience. Then, study your audience and determine that level. Dems - hmmm, somewhere between 3rd and 7th grade.
See them as people like you.
Make sure you understand why you view things as you do.
Try to understand why they view things as they do.
Listen to them respectfully.
Speak with them respectfully.
Try to make sure that they know that you do understand their views.
Speak with them about specific issues rather than symbols, general philosophies or icons.
Concentrate on similarities as least as much as differences.
Great post, nwrep!!
A good start would probably be to find a conservative candidate to support!
Media.
The conservative movement is huge and don't your dem friends ever tire of all the negativity and opinions disguised as facts from the DNC?
Talk in sound bites backed by careful research instead of getting into circular discussions with your dem friends.
Last but not least, send them to my web site. I don't attack dem voters, just DNC tactics. See tag line. I need some interaction over there. The Feedback Form is at the bottom of my home page.
(Fla freepers win big for Florida candidates with little fanfare)
It's a big job to be the leader of the free world and the United States of America. The guy's on vacation in Crawford. Bush bashing freepers, please give him a break for once and email your elected officials and the RNC if you have a concern. Communicate with your leaders instead of whining like democrats!!!
I just spent the better part of a day asking a question that to this point remains unanswered; I think that I will spend a lot of time asking this question for the next year.
I asked people who were complaining about the current administration, what their solutions were, and what candidate they supported who would implement these solutions. I got many questions in return, but no answers.
Well, I got SOME answers, they just were not answers to the questions I asked.
I got answers like "putting the nails in the coffin of the neo-con philosophy is more important than winning", and "I intend to write in John Stossel".
There were statements made about how having a Democrat in the White House would force the Republicans to "apply some constraints", and a lot of the usual "no difference between Republicans and Democrats".
Folks, in a nutshell, and to help you avoid reading over 300 posts, the thing that was the most conspicuous in its absence was common sense.
Well, that along with solutions, a plan, or a viable candidate.
It was quite telling that those who complained the loudest refused to answer one simple question: "what candidate do you support in the upcoming elections?"
They didn’t have to answer, their answer was quite clear; they will support, by either their actions, or their inactions, whatever candidate wins the DNC nomination.
Funny thing is that all those chest thumping, "true conservatives", "I stand on my principles" people didn’t have sufficient courage to stand by their convictions, and simply tell me whom they supported in the presidential race.
Then of course, there was the individual who will sit out the process until he is brought a candidate that meets his approval…that’s some real gumption there folks.
I guess that’s the paleoconservative version of "principles": do something that you are ashamed to own up to, and then stand by, fiddle in hand, watching Rome burn at the hands of the Democrats.
Folks, my answer to those "true conservatives" was real simple:
No "conservative" ever sees helping elect Democrats as a solution to anything.
As you can see they offer no solutions, plans, or candidates. They just offer up endless gloom and malcontentism.
Just ignore them and thank you for your help. The thing I plan to do is to remind a couple of my friends who are receiving their child tax credit check this week, who pushed hrough the tax cuts. They are estatic over getting their checks.
To answer your question, if you're trying to make converts out of Dems you're wasting your time in the long run. Sure a small percentage on the grand scale can hop over permanently and you may be able to get even a few more to vote with you at any given time, but they'll never be anything more than "mercenaries".... fair weather fickle types. Grass roots campaigns aren't born from this type of seed.
The grassroots groudswell during the 2000 elections happened on its own without contrived prodding. Much of the energy that prompted that is now gone (many of the former participants are on this board).
What makes it worse is when you complain about the causes of this, the rabid little pricks around start showing their claws as if you're some kind of enemy, which causes even further resentment and incalcitrance. Some are just nasty, but some are venomous to the point of psychosis.
I'm not certain how I'm going to vote come 2004, but I am certain I want to be nothing like the vacuous little creepy types who seem to have no guiding princpals except for faith in men as opposed to ideals. They suck.