Reply #7: My two cents' worth

[Psephos]

Peak_Oil, I think you're smart to expose yourself to other points of view. I do it myself, and find it helps me sharpen my own opinions. (I think of it as working out at the gym - hard sometimes, but makes you stronger.)

A lot of progressives have a cartoonish conception of repugs, which is a net disadvantage when engaging them in debate or an election. You have to get inside their heads a little (horrors!). They aren't stupid, and (here come the flames) aren't evil. They are, however, blind to many of the consequences of their beliefs, as all true believers are.

Now, to respond more directly to what you wrote. (BTW, these are just my opinions, subject to revision; I'm always hoping for civil debate, not to prove myself right or wrong.) It should go without saying, but I am observing here, not espousing.

1. They prefer a state of peace, but think that war is sometimes (or often) how you obtain it.

2. They don't like the idea of killing Muslims, except for those they think are terrorists. Problem is, their definition of terrorist is broad, and subject to redefinition as circumstances change.

3. They were genuine contributors en masse to the tsunami aid effort, and not because they were looking for quid pro quo. However, they seemed awful touchy about perceptions of American generosity. In the same way that an alcoholic can seem awful touchy when someone mentions how much they're drinking.

4. Most of them think the war is about re-ordering Middle Eastern politics, not about Saddam's WMD or whatever. They're afraid terrorists are going to sneak a nuke into the US and blow up a city, and they think that by turning Middle Eastern countries into Western-style democracies they'll get at the root cause. They also see the war as an affirmation of American values.

5. There are a lot of them that held their nose when they voted for Bush. If Kerry had picked off, on average, just one in twenty of those who voted for *, it would have been Kerry, not *, who was inaugurated. If Donks had put up a candidate who could have appealed to just a few more of them than Kerry, the world would be a different place right now.

The repugs often make the mistake of cartooning the left based on their perceptions of left extremists (Ward Churchill, for example), and then use that cartoon to avoid listening or understanding what we are really about and really saying.

We do the same about them. If we really want to prevail over them, we have to understand them, not dismiss them as mythical demons.

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -
deliberate, contrived, and dishonest, but the myth -
persistent, persuasive and realistic.
-John F. Kennedy