Some people are saying he’s the secret child of the master of flip flopping, whose moral beliefs are as solid as water, and the biggest sniveling weasel in all of D.C., Lindsey Graham.

Crysta from Fern Gully

Or Gadget from Chip 'N Dale.

My family including my parents moved from rural conservative to progressive left (probably somewhere around Social Democrat).

I’ve spent A LOT of time trying to truly reach out to conservatives, Trump supporters, from this angle. It requires a lot of time, but know two key things:

1. All you can do is plant seeds for neurons to grow. Belief structures get locked in like worn paths through a jungle, and so carving new ways requires an immense amount of time. You’ll never see the fruits of your labor yourself — both because the vast majority of people have an ego they protect at all cost, and because by the time something “clicks” and new neural paths build, you’ll be long gone.

2. Always recognize that your target audience is not the individual, themselves, necessarily, but the onlookers to the discussion. Always hold the high road. Always be courteous and let them throw the first punches. You’ll have a much easier task convincing the fence-sitters whose egos aren’t directly on the line as a direct participant in the conversation.

You can increase the probability you’ll reach these people by ending the conversation on a cordial note once you realize arguments are starting to become circular. You also know you made some decent ground if they just ghost the conversation or delete their entire comment chain without warning. You pierced their ego; they feel embarrassed. You’ve given them food for thought. Try to also frame how you got out of the echo-chamber so it’s not necessarily an attack on them, but an example of growth on yourself.

It’s a thankless task, the victories you’ll never see until we see it on a statistical level. The problem is that it’s a competition for who commands their attention the most, and you’ll never compete with Twitter, Fox News. You just have to hope they have that eureka moment, combined with perhaps a direct run-in with the fascism you warn about.

Right. As it was, the entire party almost imploded following their commitment to overturning Roe. They learned their lesson that can only dangle solutions to the fears of their base, maybe address a symptom here and there, but never provide true solutions to the root problems.

Well yeah.

It’s also the reason he told Republican in Congress to tank the strongest Border Security bill in decades in 2024 after Republicans realized, “Oh crap, Democrats are actually going to vote Yes on it!”

I’ve racked my brain with this and coming from a family who changed over years from Republican to Democrat, let me suggest some things:

In terms of the high level grifters and psychopaths, yes, undermining the strongman image with things like mockery, humiliation, embarrassment can be very effective not only at getting under the skin of tyrants but making others realize the clowns they are.

Shaming doesn’t work with psychopaths because they don’t feel guilt.

In terms of interacting with average Joe Trump supporters (the grifted), I do think it’s worth planting seeds even if you’ll never witness the seed grow yourself. One such seed is attempting to redirect their anger to the rich stealing their hard earned paycheck. Any chance to spin the conversation to trust fund children who never worked like Musk and Trump hijacking our democracy should be driven into the conversation. They’re the real culprits for the pressures they feel.

I was very active in the political scene then. It couldn’t have been more obvious that msnbc, npr, and the broader DNC was setting up Hillary for a coronation.

She was already pushed aside in 2008 and it wasn’t going to happen again. Hence why they cut back immensely on the number of DNC sanctioned debates.

2020 was a different beast in some ways. Democrats are not agile. They do not adapt to the moment. They play on seniority, and boy did they really play on seniority this time.

Biden held a grudge against Obama because he told Biden to hold off and give Hillary her turn. So here we go again with the coronation.

Combine the fact that Warren and Sanders split the progressive coalition while Michael Bloomberg joined the race to derail progressive candidates by spending $1 billion of his own money (unprecedented), and the rest is history.

I ultimately did vote for Hillary and Biden but the game being played couldn’t have been more obvious.

What I wouldn’t give for if only 1 in 5 voted for the nazi party in America.

47% are extremely susceptible to disinformation echo chambers.

The rich have eroded academic institutions and flooded the airwaves, muddying the waters of reality that only those with time and strong critical-thinking skills can parse.

Put another way: if I was a psychopathic piece of shit I’d know that a dumb electorate is easier to grift and control. So I’d make sure they stay confused, ignorant, and apathetic.

I’m glad it seems that many democrats are quitting their Gatekeeping bullshit with AOC.

So frustrating to see people so concerned about the perception of some strawman caricature the right manufacture for our best fighters that we turn on our own. If it wasn’t obvious, they attack her so relentlessly because they fear her and know her potential more some of our own.

Yeah I can’t even blame them. The right control everything already, including what the vast majority of Americans see.

Let’s just pretend if Democrats tried to do something similar to Jan 6. My god you would hear about it every day, 24/7 across all social media platforms, fox news, etc. The megaphone of the right is unmatched. There would be military tribunals Republicans would declare literal war on the traitorous scum.