It's pretty safe to say that this group is a bunch of forward thinking rational people. That's the good news.
I can put forward an idea here and we can punt it around a bit and if I'm proven wrong, hey, that's fine, we can find another formula to work with.
So, lets take a look at what science has given us and hash it out a bit. This is an exploration of ideas. If you guys think I'm right off the mark, just say so, but at least here, on this board, we have the freedoms to express our views and ideas. Try doing this in Utah.
The bad news is generally in the USA you are outnumbered 1.5:1. Why is that? Quite simply no matter how much we try to sugar-coat it, or how much we try to prove/believe that people are more complex than they are the truth boils down that any individual can be packed up and placed into 16 different boxes. That's it. You and everyone else around you can be broken into 16 personality types. It's called the Meyers-Briggs personality template.
Each of the 16 types can be placed into four categories, Conceptualist (me), Idealist, Experiencer and Traditionalist.
I'll provide some links so you can read up on it.
http://209.15.29.56/myersbriggs/traditionalist.htm
http://209.15.29.56/myersbriggs/conceptualist.htm
http://209.15.29.56/myersbriggs/idealist.htm
http://209.15.29.56/myersbriggs/experiencer.htm
I'll provide to you why we keep loosing this fight, and why the rational traditional teaching methods don't work. We also can use our friend (Science) to our advantage.
It boils down to Conceptualists(3 percent of the population) and Idealists(12 percent of the population), VS Traditionalists(45 % of the population). Experiencers are shaped by individual circumstances, these guys go both ways. They count for another 40 % of the population but for arguments sake, we can split them 20/20 D/R.
Boil down the numbers and we are (roughly) screwed 1.5:1. This is a clear division in cultures, that's why the bumpkins go out gay-bashing and screw their sisters while we create art and innovations in the big city and screw other- people's sisters.
Reality Check: Ok, there really are more of them than us, and the values they voted for are what they truly BELIEVE.
This is where America really is, and what they really want. Don't fight it. It's the truth, this IS the reality. (We like reality right?)
So, what's the good news? The good news is we SEE the big picture. This is why we vote for issues that have no direct affect on us. We can put ourselves in other people's shoes, we can empathize, and we can grasp abstracts. They cannot. They can only see, feel and believe from personal experiences. THEY DO NOT UNDERSTAND OUR VIEW AT ALL! They can't even grasp it. It's ALIEN to them and they can't possibly understand our viewpoint or how it could possibly benefit them... Yet... we're getting there, and the best part is, it isn't us who are doing the educating. Its the Repug's themselves.
The theocratic bubble certainly exists, and any ideas out of this bubble threaten and scare them. Even though these beliefs are wrong and completely counter-productive to their well being, traditional thinking will rule. They want to believe in this reality so badly and belong to their religious clubs so deeply that no matter how you can rationalize their self interest otherwise, their personality type will keep them voting Republican. To make it worse, once they learn, we have to teach a whole new set of rednecks self-preservation because the old ones we have educated die off. These people ONLY learn from first hand experience, and the cycle continues anew.
I have spent YEARS of my life trying to pry at them, chip at them, living the good example. I am an ex-churchgoer and have worked HARD within the system to question, learn and try to understand who and what they are and what they want. Then I open up books and read about personality types.
Now of the two groups we have to contend with, the experiencers are by far the easier of the two to bring on over to our side (Bill Clinton is an experiencer). To learn, they have to experience it first hand and then bingo, you have a convert. Once bitten, they don't go back.
The traditionalists, and OH how I pity them, they are the biggest thorns in our side. They comprise a whopping 40% of the population, and GWB is one of them. They do not learn like you or I do, they are TOLD what to learn. Free thought is a foreign concept and they have no wish to pursue it because they have been TOLD not to. (The school and church systems supports this fully)
They are not however, unreachable. It's just messy, hard, and we as a group have to look past our tendencies to rationalize and embrace. It's time for tough love. I know and I have read diaries asking us not to betray our liberal ideals. We aren't. We just have the creativity to adapt our methods. We don't lie and smear; we let them live their life that they supposedly want. Please keep in mind my friends, we have tried for years using our methods to teach and educate, they have failed. We must now let the Traditionalists educate themselves.
Proposals:
I think there are two things we can completely agree on,
- We must never let them get control of the Supreme Court. Above all else this is the key mantra to hum the next four years. We can let everything else go to hell in a handcart; we can bounce back from that. But NEVER EVER EVER must they stack that bench.
- We must never let this poison escape the borders of the USA. For the world's sake, and for our own, we MUST kill this beast here even if it means destroying this country's power out right.
I have read several diaries on economic succession from the Union. Bring the bucks back home to the Blue States. This is the right idea. Only when their traditions and beliefs are completely broken will they even entertain the concept of self-preservation. They must be completely broken, to the point where we must sacrifice almost everything (Including America itself if need be but this is an absolute last resort).
So, let's begin the brainstorming. Let's give them the America they believe so much in. Bring it right to their doors. Let it eat them alive. Shut off that money as best as we can to the Red states. Begin giving them enough rope to hang themselves. There will be great open-weeping and hair-loss but trust me, this is the only way these people are CAPABLE of learning. Allow big-business to trample everything, sell out and outsource. Use up, burn and pillage. Protect your own. For now.
If you disagree with me GREAT! If you have other ideas on how to get through to these people, let em pour in. Experiment on a small scale. I'd love to find an alternative to this, but based on science, I don't seem to think we can.
Open the discussion!