An exact analogy to this is brought to mind in Brigitte Gabriel's excellent book Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America. (I got a chance to see her give a lecture some years ago, it was excellent. A real firecracker of a woman. She had to have a huge bodyguard at nearly arms length from her the whole time, and I could easily imagine there were muslims who would murder this attractive, outspoken woman if they had the opportunity. Didn't shut her up, though. She came out with guns blazing!
She grew up as a Christian in Lebanon during the Civil War, and had heard (and believed) how evil the Jews were, even as a Christian. Her family was forced to live for seven years in a bombed out cellar with no electricity or running water, and after her mother was injured in an attack, she took her mother through the Israeli lines where she found the Israelis were not only NOT the monsters they were portrayed as, but they gave her mother care before a wounded Israeli soldier was treated, and had Israelis bring her family food and clothes.
She saw that all the propaganda she had been force fed by both Christians and Muslims was simply not true. The Israelis, she saw with her own eyes, were good and decent people.
Same with conservatives. A lot of leftists believe the crap the Media puts out about us.
Thanks for sharing that.
One of our challenges as some Dems are reconsidering their allegiances, will be to continue to be calm, logical, and welcoming. It will amaze them, as they discover that we are not all evil racists....