The Confederacy of Donald J. Trump: A Confederacy of Dunces

GOP politicians are the definition of people who will never understand because their paycheck depends on not understanding. Obviously reaching across the aisle in Congress or the Senate is hopeless.

Look there are a lot of conservatives I’m happy to put in the ‘probably unreachable box’ and just see if I can find some weaknesses to exploit to maybe convince them to not vote… but there are also groups of them who are actually not a very good fit for the GOP who I’m confident can be flipped.

I’m not talking out my ass here, I take every single opportunity to smuggle politics into conversations with conservatives I get. I don’t offend them, and I think I cost Trump quite a few votes.

This is a sales situation. We need to figure out what the rich veins of better prospects look like, figure out what message they want to hear, and then close them.

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This really is turning into a Sorkin show. I’m sure Will McAvoy can give you guys a lot of tips on your mission to civilize.

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Yeah it’s a possibility but nobody was ever deep into it because there was no proof. It was maybe 5% of the Russia talk, at most.

Not civilize. Converting them culturally is not the goal at all. We just need them to vote the right way. I don’t particularly care what message gets that done, but there is such a message. The whole world we live in is driven by the fact that advertising and marketing work whether you want them to or not.

I think we should be open to this option.

I know you do, but there’s not a realistic path to that even if everyone agreed with you.

I know logical inconsistencies and hypocrisy are the bread and butter of the right, but him crowing about how the comeback in AZ proves it was rigged against him while simultaneously saying Bidens comeback in PA/GA also prove it was rigged against him is enough to send my lawnmower flying.

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I think you’re right. My earlier post was a little bit too flippant. But I do think we need to make sure that while we’re applying empathy to our neighbors on their side there aren’t a bunch of armed radical fundamentalists on their side rounding up people and putting them to work in Reeducation Camps. America is getting close to having a homegrown “ISIS but with Jesus and Somehow Donald Trump?!”

If a fight like that is coming no matter what, would we rather have it now or ten years from now?

This is covered by my Great Unified Theory of American Conservatism = Thinking Double Standards Are Good. Its kind of a generalization of the American Conservatism Is Just Racism Theory.

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Look we faded the worst authoritarian outcomes already last Tuesday. It’s one of the few things I’m really grateful for out of all of this. I’m also grateful that the fog of war lifted a little and we can see how many people are actually on the other side.

I bought into the ‘this whole thing is just corporate money manipulating high probability voters into voting against their interests, but there is a ceiling to how many of those people there are so if we get turnout up they’ll get landslided’ theory of the case for us not being fucked for a long time. That’s not true, which sucks, but the clarity is not a bad thing. At least we know what needs to be done to make progress.

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Those aren’t who I am talking about though. There are persuadable people on the right I agree. The ones trolling social media don’t tend to be that subset.

Like I posted upthread I have a leftie friend who tries to “kill them with kindness” like BS is suggesting. The result has been every single thing he posts is overrun by an army of dipshits posting alt-right takes and links. He does try and dispute their “points” but that isn’t possible because the people he is arguing with don’t care about reality and are there to antagonize him. I’d love BS to wade into those waters and try and reason with these people. It isn’t possible and showing them empathy or whatever is literally just giving them a platform and credibility for their nonsense. It’s dangerous because normies do read it.

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Not mentioned in the article he’s been accused on an affair with a woman he later recommended to another office

I dont think its inevitable. But I think its a mistake to think it can’t.

I’ve mentioned it before but the easiest way to get people to flip is to take a subject they care a lot about and get them to see on their own that the GOP is horrible. So if someone cares about education, show them how corrupt Betsy DeVos is. If it’s skepitism about climate change, show how the oil companies knew it was real back in the 80’s.

What you cannot do is argue with them. They will dig down and never move.

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Yeah this is accurate. One of the better ways to flip people is to figure out what their core beliefs are and then make the stronger one fight a weaker one.

For example if you’ve ever read and comprehended the New Testament the Republican Party is a tough sell… but if you tell them that we’re murdering millions of babies a year their dislike of killing babies is going to beat absolutely everything else.

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Yeah, but then you find out the stronger one is racism.

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The persuadable people aren’t the people posting arguments on social media. Those people aren’t flippable at all. The people who read social media but don’t get involved in the actual argument is the target audience. Lots of them are still making their mind up.

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Right, and most people, above all, don’t want to be seen as stupid or ashamed. Which is why shaming and dunking are the way to go.

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Yea if anyone here knows a teacher that is conservative, you really need to hammer home how evil DeVos is. She’ll be gone in a few months so it doesn’t really matter but that’s an example.