Posted by
Playful Walrus on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:39:35 AM
So we supposedly had all of these new voters voting in this election, or at least registering to vote in the last 2-4 years. Some of those people are new to the game simply because of age, and others are new to the game for some other reason – previous disinterest, newly naturalized, or whatever. For the younger voters, Bush is pretty much all they can remember, because he’s been President for almost eight years and they weren’t really paying much attention before then, let alone during the past eight years.
You’ve probably run into these people at work and on social networking sites, as most of them have publicly gushed about Obama (yet, if you were to talk about what Bush has done right or what you liked about Ronald Reagan or why you liked McCain, they’d accuse you of trying to force your beliefs down their throat).
Many of these people naively voted for Obama because they believed the hype and that what they don’t like about how things are today is primarily Bush’s fault. Obama has been oversold. They think Obama is going to wave a magic wand and make their lives better. They think he can create cushy, high-paying new jobs for them, or hand them a prestigious diploma for free, or that he’ll bring about world peace and no American soldiers will be wounded or killed, that he'll end pollution and global warming, make the dolphins and polar bears happy, end racism and homophobia, make abortions a pleasant and painless experience with no negative consequences ever, and give them a big new house for cheap, punish the unfairly rich, cure cancer and AIDS and provide top-notch medical care for free, and everything's going to be just one huge party and lovefest across America and around the world. He’s going to cure lepers and turn water into wine.
Don't antagonize these people. Don't call them stupid. Don't badmouth Obama in front of them.
There are better ways to turn them into the conservative voters of the future.
Show interest in their hopes, their dreams, their expectations, and their thoughts.
Ask them with genuine, sincere interest exactly what it is that they are expecting from an Obama administration – and listen closely, without laughing, rolling your eyes, throwing up your hands, or pulling out your hair. Don’t interrupt them. Take notes, mentally or physically, and repeat their expectations back to them to make sure you have them right. Again, do it with a straight face and as though you are learning something, not judging them.
Don't let them stop with vague generalities, like "Everything will be better". Ask them for specifics... things like "Obama is going to make sure we all have health care we can afford." Cite Obama's own words that support their expectations, or the words of some other Democrat – if there are any and these expectations aren’t simply personal fantasy, like when a woman thinks a man who is 50 and has never been married is going to marry her and stay married to her even though they've been shacking up for ten years and he's never shown interest in getting married.
We know Obama won’t be able to do some of the things he’s promised. We also know that some of the things he's promised, if he does manage to do them, are going to make things worse, not better.
So, our jobs over the next two and four years is this. We’re going to check in on these new-voter Obama supporters regularly – talking about current events and what is going on – specifically, asking them questions and making sure they're paying attention. This is very easy on some of the social networking sites – just create our own private, personal group of your friends who haven expressing their euphoria over the election of Obama, and you will be able to send them all the same private message at the same time. You need not take too much of their time away from reading up on what Paris Hilton is doing.
Give both credit and blame where it is due. For example, President Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, and signed the welfare reform bill. But make sure you point out the role of Republicans in Congress in bringing those things about that the person likes or that you can demonstrate is an improvement. Point out examples of how government isn't always the answer by pointing out things that others are doing. "Hey, did you hear that Company X discovered a way to turn the leg hairs of feminists into clean, alternative fuel? They did that without government involvement. In fact, they would have had it ready sooner, but the government slowed them down." Or, how about, "Hey, did you see Oprah spent about one percent of what she made last year to build that hospital in Africa? Yeah, no government funds were needed for that." Point out the good work of businesses and private charities.
Point out to them when and where government is interfering in their lives and limiting their choices, especially if you can trace it back to Obama and the Democrat majority in Congress.
Don’t let them forget their expectations or the promises of Obama and the Democrats, who are already working to try to get people to do just that.
Remember – be gentle and respectful, but firm. Don’t be nasty and drive them away, but don’t let them wiggle out of the logical conclusions.
These people are going to be getting most of their info from media that is pro-Obama – the dinosaur media, late night jokesters, public radio, People Magazine, etc. Some of these sources are going to try to attribute any problems or failures to Obama trying to please Republicans and not being Leftist enough. But sometimes, you can find information in these sources that actually makes our point for us. It may be buried, they may try to spin it the other way, but carefully analyzing it with your Obama-supporting friend can reveal the truth.
Often, you are going to have to link them to info from sources that favor limited government, federalism, conservatism, libertarianism, and so forth – sources that actually take the Constitution seriously and might even mention now and again that this is the greatest country in the world. There are plenty of such sources that are clear, calm, and reasonable and avoid taking a tone that turns off those who might not automatically agree at first glance or hearing – sources with a lot of credibility. If the person has indicated that they voted for Obama, at least partially, because of his parentage/skin color, be sure to use Larry Elder, Walter E. Williams, and Thomas Sowell as sources, among others.
Don’t accept a dismissal such as "Oh, that’s just an Obama hater." Ask them exactly where and how the source is wrong. Appeal to them to be open-minded and fair.
Ask them questions like, "Should the federal government be doing this? Should any level of government be doing this?" (You may want to carry around a pocket copy of the Constitution and ask them to point to the clause that gives that branch of government that power.) "Isn’t there a better way for this to get done or to address that problem?" Always focus on how we should be making our families and out country stronger, not weaker, not restricting the freedoms – especially economic freedoms – of our people. Always point out that the fewer people depending on the government, and the fewer areas of their lives where they are doing so, the better it is for those people and for taxpayers.
Point out how the decisions, new programs, or new regulations impact them, even if indirectly. Tell them how they are impacting you. This will especially be effective if these people are your own children or employees.
"Sorry, I have to let you go because my taxes are going up, or ever since taxes went up people have less money to by our goods or services."
"Sorry, we can’t take that trip because we need to pay more in taxes."
Some of these people will get the point as they start to learn more about politics and life in general. Some of them won’t. But perhaps more than ever in our history, we have people who voted for Obama and other Democrats who have been set up by the campaigns, by the MSM, and by their own naive sense of entitlement for significant disappointment and disillusionment. When that happens, we should not let them avoid politics entirely. We should make each and every one of them one of us.
We can do that, if we have strong, principled Republicans we can point to as the alternatives.
Related: Post-Election Reminders