I was listening to Mr. Bill a little while ago and he said something that reminded me of a point that Jay Elias made a few weeks ago. Mr. Bill was going on about how he was having a hard time making up his mind about what he was going to do come November. Now I only listened for about 15 minutes so I am extrapolating what his point was from what I heard but I think I got the jist of it.
Mr. Bill said that he couldn't vote for the Democrats because we are a party without "solutions." When he talked about the GOP he brought up Iraq and said something about it "not going the way they wanted it too."
This was Jay's point from a few weeks ago. It's not that the GOP is doing anything wrong, in their minds, it is that they are just victims of circumstances beyond their control. And when you distill their arguments down in all areas they all comes back to that.
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You can go all the way back to the beginning of this fiasco known as the GWB Presidency. "No one could have foreseen that they would fly planes into buildings." Except they could and they did. We all know thus because we are tuned in and pay attention. But this is a very effective argument for people not paying attention and for those that are predisposed to voting GOP. Everyone has had things happen to them that truely were the result of circumstances beyond their control.
According to much of the pundocraty the fact that Iraq is spiraling out of control is less a result of the actions taken by this Administration than it is a result of outside forces beyond their control.
Healthcare? Ditto.
Immigration? Mega dittos.
Katrina? Yup.
So here is the question. How do we change this frame before the election. For me it is simple because I live in an extremely liberal city so I speak to the choir more often than not. But those of you who live in purple and red states will have a harder time doing this because the people you are trying to convince are more inclined to defend the Administartion and the GOP because they voted for them. In this day and age it is far easier to jump on any defense of your actions than it is to admit that you were wrong.
So in the event that anyone has read down this far, what do you suggest? I'm especially interested in hearing from those redstaters that have had some success in countering this defense while talking to their GOP friends and neighbors.