The Sheeple are awake....and questioning...and ANGRY.

[NightOwwl]

What if an acquaintance approached you and unexpectedly said something like this:

"How did we end up with this idiot? Why are we in Iraq? 9-11 didn't have anything to do with Iraq. Sadam Hussein didn't have anything to do with 9-11. I really got angry when I heard Bush say, 'You're either with us or against us,' and I've been angry with him ever since. What gives him the right to tell us we are traitors if we don't agree with him? I don't like the way he treats gays. I don't like the way he lied to us about the war. How can someone like him be elected?

This is a true story. I know, because it happened to me, today. He's the kind of guy that (until recently) trusted the President implicitly, because how could you believe your government would intentionally screw you over, again and again and again.

What woke him up from his long sleep? A combination of Katrina and his last job, which happened to be at the home of guy who is a member of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. They had some very long conversations about Bush. And the OSI agent said that he and everyone he works with, with no exceptions, thinks Bush is the worst thing to ever happen to this country.

Anyway, I gave him the link to Buzz Flash and told him to rent Fahrenheit 911. He'll be at my house-installing floor next week...by the time he finishes; he'll be ready to join DU in frog-marching Bush and the rest of the cabal right out of the White House!

[stop the bleeding]

1. Bravo, another from the dark side to the enlightened side.

[LoKnLoD]

2. Great story

I love it when another one sees the light.

[drb]

3. Peasants, awaken! Grab your torches and pitchforks!!!!

Let's go storm the monster's castle!!!

NOTE to SS: If you think this is literal, it is, but only if the inhabitant is literally a monster.

[Sabriel]

30. I can't. I'm using my torch to heat my dwelling

What with the heating cost increases, we're down to living in one room and heating with a single torch....

[Joe Chi Minh]

42. The ones who are impervious to truth and the most

elementary common sense, like the small Nevada (or was it Idaho or Nebraska?) farming folk, a DUer quoted, actually put me in mind of the folk who did run out with pitchforks and torches - because Orson Wells had told them on a fake radio newscast that America was being invaded by aliens from outer space!

[kurth]

4. 22% inflation, $3/gal gas, huge heating bills, rising interest rates

... and lower disposable incomes!

It's the economy again!!

[NightOwwl]

6. Welcome to DU kurth!

[Elwood P Dowd]

12. I wanted NightOwl when I joined DU a few years ago

but it was already taken. I should have done like you and just added a "W". Just couldn't bring myself to type "W" twice.

[NightOwwl]

17. It's habit now...

en-eye-gee-ach-tee oh-doubleu-doubleu-ell

[niallmac]

5. "What woke him up from his long sleep."

Gasoline is too expensive. That has gotten everyones attention. No new moral ethic sweeping the nation. Gas is too expensive and what good is a murdering lying leader if the murdering and lying doesn't result in cheap gas? These are my cynical conclusions but I have no other explanation why this late in the game ethics raises its' ugly head.

[Dunvegan]

7. The "High Road," Night Owwl...

...and you're winning "hearts and minds" here in America itself...one poor deluded bastard at a time.

No shrill "I told ya so's" will serve any of us well. Okay?

Just take a page from the Funeral Director's Handbook:

Listen.
Commiserate.
Reach out.
Accept them, in what is after all, their grief...and shame. So hard it is to face their shame, you know.

So with acceptance show how reasonable and patient we are. How truly compassionate and forgiving and accepting of converts under the "Big Tent."

We must build again especially with those souls that were insanely and foolishly trusting. Because they were tragicaly and cruelly fooled and used as we were not...and blame no shame on them for finally coming to an epiphany.

As we all know: Nothing more radical than a convert.

Just "Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!"

It will be so refreshing and enlightening and conforting for those coming ovah from the "Dark Side."

Like the Germans in Berlin at the end of the war: Any that could ran to the American advance forces because Americans were upholding human rights of their (now) former Nazi enemies.

The Russians, (ripped to shreds in the German advance to take Moscow) were hell-bent on revenge and killing.

Let's act like the Allies towards the "surrendering" conservatives.

For they, not us, can most effectively preach to thier former choir and help us turn the "crimson voter" tide.

Hearts and minds...hearts and minds...AND the road to 2006!

[Gildor Inglorion]

8. I truly wish I could be reasonable and compassionate to these fools...

and maybe some day I can, but not yet...not yet. "Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas," I always say. When the B*shit supporters are starving and selling rotten apples in the street, maybe I'll have a smidgin of compassion for them.

[CrispyQ]

36. The Funeral Director's Handbook

That's so close to true it's sad. A funeral for democracy, if they don't wake up.

Hard as it may be to resist, you are right on in that "I told you so's" are counter productive to our cause.

[UTUSN]

9. One Way to Turn Potential Friends off Is to Call Them "Sheeple" n/t

[NightOwwl]

18. "Sheeple" used in a subject line to draw attention....

is not quite the same as calling someone "Sheeple" to their face. I know the difference.

[Gregorian]

10. When you try driving a car, using the rear view mirror as a steering wheel

You're bound to have problems with perception. Let alone driving.


Woo Hoo! Sort of.

[SammyWinstonJack]

11. You know, I just don't get this mentality where one can't believe

that their government would intentionally screw them over. I have never had that problem. Guess I am just cynical. I first think that my government will screw me over and then wait for the outcome, to prove me right. Thanks repugs! You taught me to be this way!

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Most people around the world, not only the US,.

are taught a very special mythology in school, where the gov'ment is your friend and would never screw yuou over.

Think back to history clases, did they ever tell you just how bad the Gov'ment woudl screw you? Ever studied in HS about the WW I vets who were run out of town by McCarthur? That is why people believe that their government will not screw them. They are essenctially good, so the government has to be.

Human psychology 101

[Marr]

37. You know what REALLY confuses me about that mindset?

It's so often coupled with the "must destroy big government" mindset. They'll preach to you forever about how government is inefficient, corrupt, etc., etc.- then advocate blind obedience.

It makes no sense.

[bobbieinok]

43. I tell young people I learned in the 60s not to believe anything

the govt or a politician says

I go on to say I then realized that this attitude is THE American attitude toward govt

didn't the British tell the colonists that every they did was for the good of the colonists????.......so finally there was a Boston tea party

[Dunvegan]

13. I agree about the "sheeple" slam...

...and all other slams, now.

I've seen many a forum have a conservative convert tied to the stake with "I told you so"...and then seen them feel that we're not people they want to consolidate with.

And then they turn back.

Welcome the formerly deluded.

Again...remember the road to 2006!

[NightOwwl]

20. See post #18 n/t

[Dunvegan]

15. In reply...

" I truly wish I could be reasonable and compassionate to these fools...

and maybe some day I can, but not yet...not yet. "Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas," I always say. When the B*shit supporters are starving and selling rotten apples in the street, maybe I'll have a smidgin of compassion for them."

------------

Yes...I know...I know.

But a convert is NO LONGER on the other side...that means they are on our side...and that means that they should be given the benefit of a welcome.

They are just people...and many did not educate themselves...just went with their knee-jerk for the Neo-Jerks.

Now they know.

So they are "we" now...however they got here.

It's like a 12-step program: They are "recovering conservatives."

Since they are converting...they are no longer dogs...flea problem solved!

[tlsmith1963]

16. That's Great!

I just hope that my stepfather wakes up. He was ranting last night about how the possible indictments coming up are just "politics", that the Democrats are only doing this to get back in power. He seemed to feel sorry for Rove & the others. Geeezzz...why don't these people *think*? It ceased to be just "politics" to me a long time ago. This is about getting rid of people who are destroying this country.

Tammy

[July]

32. Guess he doesn't know Fitzgerald was appointed by Ashcroft.

It's a nice fantasy that Democrats have the power to get high-level members of the Bush administration indicted. If only.

[helderheid]

19. Thank you! I hope every DUer that reads this takes away the message

that most people who trust * do so because we've been set up to do so. Most people believe what is on TV. Most people want to think the best of our "leaders". There are some who will never wake up but look at the polls - most are waking up

Bravo and recommended!

[NightOwwl]

21. Thanks helderheid!

[drmom]

22. I've thought all along the people need to revolt in order to get rid of *

Hopefully enough people are finally ready for that revolt!

[rasputin1952]

23. I am sitting here on a cold Nebraska night...I guess I should be feeling

kind of chilly, but I am warm...because I have been watching mu fellow Nebraskans get off the bush Bandwagon, turn it over and set it on fire. When people in NE are talking about the 'worst president ever' you can bet that the GOP is taking a beating.

I never thought that I would hear this out here. But the Heartland is fed up, and they see things in a very pragmatic way. I won't get my hopes up to see NE go Blue, but you can bet your boots that it is seriously purple right now.

As for me, i don't rub it in, I let people I know come up to me and say, "You were right, absolutely correct in what this guy would do to the country. He is a bad man and a worse president". I take it all in, and welcome to them to the ranks of the enlightened. I've gotten, over the past 4 years, 22 people to change to Independent, (I'm not so foolish as to press them to become D's around here); and 6 have changed to D. Sure. it doesn't sound like much, but some of these are Fundy's, a lot are farmers, and some are just plain folk, small business owners and the like. I used to laugh at these people when they stood in line at the store, talking about how "Great bush is", now I see the same people looking like their dog had just died when someone mentions bush.

2006 will set the stage for '08, I'm working my butt off to get people to vote for anything but an R. These are good people, they just needed to see that bush and the neo-con movement came right out of the gates of hell, they have awoken, and they will take this bastard down...

[bluedawg12]

24. This is very promising- people are waking up from their slumber

and the horse and pony show of the * preznitency is startig to look fake-- I think Katrina and the failure of FEMA and HS shocked a lot of people into reality and then started seeing the scandals and now thinking backwards to Iwreck.

We need to get the message about the neocommies out there- because they are entrenched and when shrub is gone they will say he failed them- and that their ideology was correct. Shrub will be gone but the neommies will linger. What to do?

[NightOwwl]

28. This guy was so afraid to say out loud that he disagreed with Bush...

but when he found out I was on "his side" he coudn't stop talking.

Bush/Rove et al actually had this poor guy convinced he was a traitor. I hate this administration for what they did to people like him.

[July]

33. I hope you will talk to him about that "traitor" label.

It is so un-American to stifle dissent that way. Please remind him that it is only in dictatorships and some monarchies that one risks one's life or reputation by not agreeing with the leader. If we are a democracy, we are free to speak out. And that means ESPECIALLY when we hold unpopular views -- could we really have free speech if we are only permitted to speak when we agree with the majority? That's a very watered-down "freedom."

[salin]

34. survey usa change this month

last month indiana disproval/approval - 1% tipped negative to bush. Today - bush down by 9%

Nebraska was still one of the handful of states to favor bush- but even that is shrinking. Things keep trending - and by the elections next year - both our traditionally red heartland states will be solidly anti bush.

[alittlelark]

25. A toast to the awakening sheeple!!!

[lostnfound]

29. A toast & a welcome &a "thank God, we need you!! all hands on deck..."

because the ship is sinking.

[FreedomAngel82]

26. And than he can

introduce his friends and it'd be a domino effect. At least now he's thinking for himself.

[texpatriot2004]

27. Yeah, the sheeple are waking up. Woo Hoo. Thanks for this

inspiring story. Glad to hear it.

[Skidmore]

31. So I guess he wouldn't still want to have a beer with * after all.

[Democrats_win]

38. Now they need a beer since they can't drive, drink expensive milk, and who

wants to be sober during America's last days anyway.

[wryter2000]

35. Good for him

When he signs up for DU, introduce him, so we can welcome him back to reality.

[rocktivity]

39. Nothing quite as dramatic,

but Bon Jovi have recently given me a chance to educate fans on their official message board.

When the band appeared on Oprah and gave her a check to help with her hurricane relief, Jon Bon Jovi said that we were witnessing a class rather than a race struggle, and that there was a "flaw" in the system. I seized the opportunity to "get political" and explain what the flaw was--the Bush "system" consists only of the class that can afford to buy his political influence and the class that can't. As a result, "the richest get richer, the middle class gets smaller, the poor get left on rooftops, and FEMA can't function because for all practical purposes, it's a shell corporation."

Yesterday, Bon Jovi announced they'd be playing a gig for active service personnel only at a New Jersey military base this weekend (link). Their guitarist Richie Sambora talked about a fundraiser he played for military families in California: "My father-in-law was a U.S. Marine colonel...(who) was stationed on the base we played at...We were raising money because when these kids go away and then come home in a body bag, their family gets $12,000 and they get kicked off the base a month later." The perfect excuse for posting a laundry list of the financial woes that wounded soldiers get billed for, from hospital meals to unrecovered equipment to even their enlistment bonuses. And I topped it off with a complaint about soliders STILL having to buy their own additional armor!

One does what one can.


rocknation

[nadinbrzezinski]

40. And you did good kid

[NightOwwl]

41. Bravo, rocknation!