I've told this story before...

[fabrisse]

In August of 2004, I was at a friend's birthday party. Someone came up to me and said that the people who lived in the middle of the country, the ones who were going to be voting Republican were, and I quote, "stupid." When I disagreed, he said, "What do you call people who vote against their own interests?" We then got into a discussion about

Comments

[innerslytherin]

Make no mistake, this is about class and privilege in the United States. While white privilege exists (hoo boy, does it exist), people who are in extreme poverty, without work, and with drugs devastating their communities don't see themselves as privileged.

This is pretty much why I think Indiana is so Republican. :(

[fabrisse]

Yes. I don't know how to reverse it other than to listen and be able to explain how our actions can help -- and then actually take the actions.

[innerslytherin]

Talking does work. When I created my LJ account in 2002, I was a single-issue Republican voter. I didn't know how anyone could be a Christian and vote to murder babies.

Then I started meeting people who had other perspectives. I started hearing the voices of LGBTQ people and people of color. I started making friends with people who are pagan and agnostic and atheist.

I listened to these voices, and I changed my mind. I changed my voting habits.

So people can change. It's just a long process of setting a spell and talking, like you say.

[bobby1933]

Kurt Vonnegut suggested (at Nixon's second convention) that one party is committed to maintaining the wealth of the wealthy and the other party pretends to be committed to helping the poor. This year the poor got tired of the pretense and decided to cut off their noses to spite their faces. Good luck to all of us.

[fabrisse]

I think the problem is more that when most of the left wing think of the poor, they think urban. Rural and small town poverty is a blip on the radar, if we're lucky, rather than being visible. This is a flashing light show saying "Here we are. Help us."

[gipsieee]

Thank you for this. And yes. Pointing to someone and saying "you're stupid, vote for me" is rarely (probably never) actually an effective campaign strategy. It's been losing democrats and liberals elections at a variety of levels for as long as I've been paying attention to politics.
(here from Siderea's journal)

[fabrisse]

Sorry I missed this for so long. Good to see you here.