Can someone help me on the question of the value of "compromise"?

[CTyankee]

14. I don't have many repub friends. One that I have is such an ideologue that he would agree

with the destruction of Medicare. He is a very self destructive person in his own personal life, even tho the guy has a Ph.D in Economics. In social situations where a discussion like this would come up, he would just drink more and pretty soon he's yelling stuff like "I have a dick!" and that's when it's time for his wife to gently take him home.

I find it difficult to discuss the real issues with another repub I know because he is so scattered in his thinking. He can't concentrate on a single issue without going into several different directions all at once. And we're aren't speaking to repubs in my husband's family, precisely because of their actions which I would call "typically republican" but unfortunately due to shared property interests must involve us, if only in a frosty way. They are bitter people.

I would probably have more success with my "mushy middle" friends who feel vulnerable in their own lives to peer pressure not to like Obama (unfortunately, some of it racist). One such acquaintance can't really get past Obama being black, but does understand the issue as it relates to her and her family. She has been on food stamps and her kids got SS because their dad was disabled and couldn't work. She "gets" part of it (the part that directly affects her!).