How do you respond to that?

[TeamsterDem]

I watched Real Time with Bill Maher tonight and he had a segment where Alexandra Pelosi went to the deep south to do some guy-on-the-street interviews. As you'd imagine the responses ranged from idiotic to offensive. I don't think anyone can change a racist or a bigot or a sexist, but it might be possible to engage the less kneejerky of that element seeing as the south is often the poorest area of the country, so it should be ripe for an insurgent wave of ideas challenging the stereotypes and pointing out that life under the Red State masters hasn't turned out well for anyone.

At one point one of the interviewees stated that he hated the federal government, that they're worthless, except that he does receive welfare. Another one started by saying he wanted to see "Obama care" wiped out. When asked that the defenseless need medical care too, his blistering response was "umm, yeah." My point I guess is that this shouldn't be the hardest argument to win. But imagining turning just a few southern states purple or blue would sure strengthen our chances to elect Democrats. So it seems like a worthwhile thing to do.

But how do you tell a guy the definition of insanity being doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results, and then asking him how voting Republican for all of this time hasn't improved anything only to hear him say "yeah, but it might."

One guy said he'd rather go broke than vote for Democrats (he said vote against his beliefs and conscience). That one is telling, it says that if we could somehow do a better sales pitch in the south that we could diminish the differences he thinks we have while showcasing the economic power he inherently admitted we wield when he said he'd rather go broke (voting Republican).

There is a lot of racism and sexism in the south. But it's not all of them. And there are a lot of traditional Democratic voters: University students, minorities, women, and in some cases even union members. Maybe if our initial insurgency focused just on those groups we might cause some change. Yeah the Republican lies are well-ingrained in southern culture, so it wouldn't be easy or overnight. But the initial Civil War South has now grown west and north. Ceding that electoral ground seems cowardly and ill-advised.

So what might you say to someone like these people who in many cases don't even know why they don't like Democrats, they're just sure they do.