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"In fact, that issue (illegal imigration) has so little public popularity that it is unlikely to become an election issue in 2006 or 2008, either (well, outside of 3rd party "conventions")."

Not even ten posts in the first hour for this thread on...drum roll...illegal immigration. Not even one hundred showed up for the rally.

The radical Left can have 15,000 show up for a Washington rally at the drop of a hat, yet even those levels aren't large enough to force their "issues" to become national campaign points during election season. Having merely 80 show up won't do it for the Right, either...that's for certain.

Basically, it's just a vocal on-line group and some talk-show hosts parroting your issue. You can create a temporary echo-chamber for each other if you want...thereby giving yourself the appearance of popularity and importance...but it will only leave you bitter, frustrated, and "surprised" come election season 2006 and 2008.

Here's an experiment for you: go to an unfamiliar barber shop (i.e. you know no one) and just *listen*. Don't talk. Don't repeat aloud your pet issue in some vain hope that your temporary audience will politely nod their heads long enough to get you to shut up.

Just listen.

Write down what people talked about. Notice the small talk. Notice the sports talk. Notice the local issues talk. Notice the politics.

If you can get out of there without saying a word, then you will have some brief, unadulterated view (a rare thing in life) of your world around you.

If you find that you have to interject your opinion, then your experiment will have been a waste of your time. People behave differently in public whenever they detect an ideologue nearby, and that will ruin your opportunity to learn a little about your world.

Do this experiment successfully and you'll come away with a slightly better idea of why it is so difficult to gin up support for these rallies...why this issue isn't on the Sunday talk shows or burning up the front pages of your local newspaper.

Or you could just keep your eyes (and ears) shut to your fellow citizens. No one can twist your arm hard enough to make you do this experiment if you insist upon living without knowing how your society actually feels.