I may be making headway with my Conservative dad!

[skygazer]

I posted yesterday about my dismay at having a Kool-Aid drinking, freeper, borderline fundie daughter. Well, today, I have good news to relate. At least I hope it's good news.

My dad and I have had an ongoing political discourse for years. He's always been a conservative and I've always been a liberal. Still, I've always respected his views because he's an old school conservative, which holds a completely different set of values than todays neo-cons.

After the debate on Thursday, I emailed him saying I though Bush looked bad and Kerry clearly won. He replied that most pundits called it as a tie and "historically the debate hasn't really had any impact on the outcome of the election.

I replied with, "You mean these pundits?" and a list of some 20 or so different quotes from many different pundits, showing Kerry clearly the winner, as well as poll results. (which I got from DU - thanks, guys :hi:)

I then went on to say:

"Really? How about JFK and Nixon? Everyone says that the debates were critical to JFK’s victory. I’m not calling victory for either candidate until the election is over and the votes are counted. But I can’t understand this blind allegiance to a man who has done nothing for this country but bring it down.



I’ve known your politics all my life. You’ve always been clear and consistent in what you believed in. You’ve always held conservative values. Dad, Bush is not a conservative, by any interpretation of the word! He is not fiscally conservative, he has greatly increased the size of government, he has reduced individual freedom rather than expanded it – all core conservative values.



Look , Dad, I don’t “hate Republicans” and I never have. Many of my values are conservative as well though I’ve always leaned more toward liberal beliefs in regards to most issues. But this new breed of Republican does not hold the traditional values of the party and it’s not just liberals who think so. Many, many old value Republicans are disenchanted with this administration and it’s not surprising to me because they are not what I would consider ‘real’ Republicans.



You may think it will be a huge victory for Bush but I don’t see it. The 2000 election was very, very close. Many people have become disgusted with the direction this President has taken us – I know many people who voted for him in 2000 who will NOT be voting for him this year. We won’t know until the votes are counted but one thing is for sure, Kerry kicked Bush’s ass in the debate!"

And he replied with "your reply re; pundits was very good!!!" (exclamation points his)

I have sent him via snail mail the Eisenhower letter as well as another Conservative's article on why Conservatives should not vote for Bush (sorry, link has expired - I had it printed out). I am hopeful that perhaps he will see that Bush is not what he claims to be.

It's not a victory yet but at least he's not defending Bush anymore!

[carpediem]

1. that's great! - hopefully it will work.

my dad is similar - old school conservative. He shocked me completely back in July when we visited and he said he "just can't support *" wasn't happy about voting Kerry ("Massachusetts liberal"), but absolutely convinced * had to go.

This from a man who was close to tears when Carter beat Ford.

He had received a pic of the first couple asking for money and was laughing at it. We suggested he could use it as a dart board and he said, with sarcastic inflection, "you wouldn't want to hurt sweet Laura".

And he even went as far as telling the GOP when they called asking for $ that he just couldn't do anything to help * get re-elected.

BTW he is in Wisconsin. I am guessing there are alot of Republicans who will vote for Kerry or just not vote for *, but they aren't telling anyone about it. I don't think he has told anyone else of his decision - we were safe, because we are Kerry supporters.

You can convince your dad if he is old school, just keep working.

My project next weekend is my mom - she's an independent who thinks she's a repub, I just need to show her the error of her ways. She prefers to ignore politics and just pull the repub lever. I have ammunition though 3 kids who all hate * ! Yea!

[Booster]

2. Very good responses to your Dad. I know real Republicans

just can't be happy with what Bush has done; especially conservative Republicans who hate it when the government sends bundles of money to foreign countries when we are hurting at home. Keep calmly working on your Dad as you have been and he'll come around. At least he didn't drink the kool-aid. Good work.