Now that Barrack Obama finally has the Democratic nomination, I was ready to sit back, enjoy life, and wait for the good times to start rolling. Unfortunately, the vacation was short lived as I ran into several older gentlemen that believe McCain would become our next president. "Ha," I laughed, "that's a good one--can I buy you a beer?" When they said no, I knew they were Republicans. We proceeded with an argument on politics, and here's how it went: Me--facts, Them--that sounds like a left wing conspiracy, Me--more facts, more strategy, Them--left wing, Me--what does that even mean?, Them--?, Me--what has Bush done that is so great?, Them--Bush isn't even a right wing guy, Me--?, Them--that sounds like a left wing conspiracy...
Well, at this point I challenged them to a debate, and asked for a crowd to join me to decide the winner. Unfortunately they declined, however, I did glean some incredibly valuable information from these gentlemen. The first is that the right wing argues that any progressive talking point (health care, energy policy, Iraq, etc.) sounds "just like something a left wing extremist would say." At the same time, they say that there are normal democrats out there, but that the media is so far left because of control that comes from the far left extremists, that normal democrats don't get to have their say. If you are not laughing yet, you should be. Obviously, this Republican talking point is an attempt to categorize mainstream American opinions as far-left, thereby marginalizing them. The trick is to ask these folks what mainstream democrats believe in, or even, what they believe in...if they are anything like the people I met, they won't be able to tell you anything--in fact, this question will fool them, because they've been trained for so long simply to hate other people and ideas, that supporting something is a totally foreign concept.
The other thing to do is to play dirty. I know that being Democrats, you are probably not inclined to stoop to this level, but let me remind you of a few things: the Republican party exists because white Southerners are still pissed off that LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act (in short because of lingering racism going back to slavery), conservative Christians don't want to support a pro-choice agenda, and rich people vote for their own best interests (its easy to afford health care, high gas prices, and inflation when you have millions). Republicans represent the worst, most selfish, ignorant segments of American society, and will stop at nothing to win an election--even if that means cheating and belittling our Constitution and/or our Democracy.
Ready? OK. So the strategy is to go ahead and play the race card. Not because it is unjustified--precisely because it is--you see, the right wing is going to try and start manufacturing all these bogus stories about Obama's lack of experience, his this, his that, reverend Wright, etc, etc. The point is that most, if not all of these claims are going to be total BS that is meant to give racist Americans "legitimate" reasons not to vote for Obama. Call them on it. Tonight, one of the guys I was arguing said that Barrack, "was a nobody, a nothing." I asked him what he meant, and in the middle of his tirade, he uttered the n-word. Good night, game over, TKO. The bartender asked him to leave and he walked out with his tail between his legs. Call them out on their racism...because many Republicans are racist. Pull the race card on them. Play to win. This election is critical to the future of our country. We need Barrack in the oval office.
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