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To: Behind the Blue Wall
As someone who's a Canadian and with Irish heritage, I found your father-in-law's remarks fascinating. They're reminiscent of old Irish-Catholic arguments to keep Irish Catholics "votin' the right way."

I don't have any family legend to go on, but I imagine they went something like these:

Do you see the psychological pressure being applied here? The mix of sentimentality and the appeal to group loyalty? If you ever wondered why a bunch of decent people would stick with a political machine, the above list should open your eyes. It was far more than micro-bribery that did the trick.

What many don't understand about machines is, they rise and fall on emotional support. Those pressure tactics, repeated by decent people as they seem decent, reinforce the emotional bond and provide a major psychological deterrent to breaking out.

Your father-in-law's attempt to dissuade you is noticeably revealing. It reveals the mind-set of a decent man who's emotionally tied to a kind of political machine. If you're of the mind, you could ask him to get his friends to "talk sense" into you too. You'll see similar pressure tactics - and some you didn't even know existed.

162 posted on 12/10/2012 10:00:08 PM PST by danielmryan
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To: danielmryan

Yes, you’re absolutely right, which is why I tried to emphasize the general point that ethnic group loyalty in politics has shown itself to be a dead end everywhere it’s been tried, even when the group happens to be on the “outs” in whatever sense.


164 posted on 12/10/2012 10:32:12 PM PST by Behind the Blue Wall
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