I have a Fort Worth LEO friend who works in the highest crime areas of the city. He’s a Democrat. Whe we talk politics and I question him about his policy beliefs, I find that his values are strictly conservative.
He insists that he is “old school” Democrat. When I ask what that is, he explains that he is against the super wealthy making money on the backs of working men like himself. He truly believes that the Republican Party stands for the wealthy against the common man.
Yet he complains about all of the reglations that hinder him from doing his job and the welfare families on his beat who use their benefits for drugs and alcohol. I ask him what he would do if he had money to invest. He says he’d start a business and guarantee his own success.
He’s stuck in a mindset that his father (a farmer) instilled in him. A police officer who can’t see the facts in front of him. Very frustrating.
I think there’s a lot of psychology to overcome when it comes to convincing a long time member of a political party that he/she was wrong for all those years. I think the tea party movement can help us overcome some of that psychology. When Democrats (especially loosely affiliated democrats) see a grassroots movement like the tea party “taking over” the GOP, it becomes possible to make the argument that the GOP of “long ago” that they learned to hate is no more and, in its place is a Republican party dominated by common folk that share a few values with them. The media will, of course, try to prevent us from making such an argument by tagging us with various labels - like “racists” for example.