#and no excuses
As someone who was raised conservative and who voted Republican for 8 years before experiencing an ideological rebirth, I really feel like I should write an article or a blog post or something to help all these lifelong liberals learn what they’re up against, strategy wise.
But here’s the tl;dr -
when Republicans lose elections, they don’t ragequit. They rage, sure, but they take that rage directly to boycotts, to letter-writing, to phone-calling, to voting in the next election. Because, at least among the working class population, most conservatives are driven by the moral certainty that they are right, and that they owe it to the world to impose their worldview on it. They view themselves as protectors – especially religious conservatives, but this has been levied with great success among quasi- or non-religious conservatives as well by using things they don’t like as moral scare tactics.
Do you know how the Moral Majority came to be? In the 1970s, televangelists decided they could make more money if they got their followers focused on politics. But politics were boring. How could they make it stick? Fear tactics. And that’s still what conservatives are using today. They don’t motivate their voters with shining ideals and crystal dreams of the utopia we could all be living in if we just got along. They motivate their voters through the fear of God’s judgment/”Sharia law”/the immediate, violent loss of personal freedom. Because, you see, if they allow “evil” (homosexuality, divorce, “false religions,” etc.) to flourish, then God will judge them, personally, for not taking care of the earth and its moral health.
That’s what we’re up against. People being whiplashed by the bone-deep, brainwashed conviction that they’re all that stands between America and a one-way ticket to hell and damnation.
They’re not going to sit back and rest on their laurels, ever, because their only goal is total and complete moral purity. And for them, that means eradicating everything “impure.”
So we can’t rest, either. And in between voting, calling, and organizing? We need to be talking to our neighbors, our peers, and gently but firmly exposing them to the real truth that lies outside their brainwashed bubble. But to do that, you have to know where they’re coming from, and you have to treat them with human dignity while you’re doing it. And honestly, that’s the hardest part. But as someone for whom that tactic worked, I’m here to tell you that it’s not ineffective. You won’t convert everyone. Some people are too addicted to their fear and their hate. But you might convert someone. And that’s the strategy they’re running on, too.
