www.independent.co.uk/…
David Weissman of Florida describes how he believed Democrats were evil because conservative media told him so. He was surprised when a liberal reached out to him with kindness and he started listening.
He had a right-wing set of positions on issues, and here is his description of how that translated to Trump support:
Trump wanted the same things I wanted, so I thought he was an easy choice for President of the United States. I really believed Trump was a patriotic, successful businessman, who cared about all Americans, and that sold me on voting for him. I was aware he wasn’t a saint, but I felt no one is perfect and anyway, conservative news networks kept calling Hillary a criminal.
Sarah Silverman was the first to try to engage him on a human level, and she opened his mind to talk to others:
As I began conversing with Silverman, other people began reaching out to me. I started learning more about Democratic values and people. In many ways, it was shocking.
He didn’t have the obsessive red-faced hatred any more, but was able to respond to reality:
I still supported Trump because of who I thought he was — but then the Helsinki meeting with Putin came. I saw how he, the President of the United States, made himself vulnerable to Putin and Russia, agreeing to closed-door meetings and being recorded by our adversaries. What kind of president would do such a thing? When I saw someone tweeted a clip of the debate between Hillary Clinton and Trump where she called Trump a puppet of Putin, I was stunned. I now believe she was right. This is not the guy who I voted for, and yet it is.
He’s going to vote for Elizabeth Warren, his former friends in the MAGA world hate him now, and it was not logic that changed his mind:
No, Sarah Silverman did not get me to stop backing Trump or become a Democrat. What she did was inspire me to talk to other people who had different views to mine. She accepted me for being a Trump supporter and that’s what brought down my wall of hate and closed mind.
Sounds like slow work compared to outvoting them but even better for the country in the long run.
So that’s two out of 63 million peeled away from the base. Another is a Fox-programmed relative of mine.