Look, friends, I don't expect you to agree with their politics. I'm just telling you what anyone who's studied patterns of persuasion, effective and ineffective, would tell you: Once a man has tabbed you as his enemy, he's unlikely to listen to your opinions with attention or respect.
Conservatives in the United States are currently in the minority. President Bush won his office because of an uninspiring opponent and a fortunate distribution of electoral votes, not because the conservative viewpoint has attained breakaway status. The survival of the Republic might just depend on converting a few million reachable liberals to the cause of freedom and economic sanity. This is what I'd call a priority.
We have an opportunity coming up, because of demographic changes that are favorable to our cause. The country is getting older on average. Older people have a more conservative outlook, by virtue of their extended perspective. They tend to own more, and therefore tend to be more protective of property rights. They've seen a lot of nonsense and have had their noses rubbed in why it's nonsense. Our polemic opportunities are expanding. Let's not pollute them with unprofitable streams of vituperation and character assassination!
Please, please, don't give in to the tendency to stereotype, collectivize, or demonize folks who call themselves liberals. A lot of them are quite as horrified and disgusted about recent political defaults by their so-called leaders as we are. Let's work with their sense of betrayal, rather than jarring them into rejecting us at the outset. We don't like it when they castigate us; why should we do it to them, only to spoil what might be our last chance to reclaim a Constitutional future?
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit The Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com
A reasonable statement that applies to most situations.
It does not apply here. Liberalism, as a generic identifier, has to be changed from "nice" to "not nice". The average liberal wants to be thought of as "nice" above all else. If the connotations of the word change, the people who self identify with the word will change also.
The only way the connotations of the word will change is if people, like Ann Coulter, stand up and speak the truth.
FACT: Liberalism is NOT nice.
I couldn't disagree more. If someone feels strongly enough about you to label you as an "enemy," then they will indeed hang on your every word. (Possibly to try to find errors, so they can rip you apart, but "hang" they will!) The worst thing one can be is "ignored."