Conversation with a thinking GOP supporter

[Cronus Protagonist]

I had a few conversations recently with a GOP supporter who is a medical professional. I go there for treatment occasionally and he always has FOX News Cable channel on the TV. He's a right-winger who watches FOX because, as he claims, they're the only TV channel that presents both sides of the issues (I know... hold on a second). He does not know that I'm a lefty so he often brings up his gripes and complaints that mirror the GOP talking points of the day/week/month/year.

Well, I had a fun time with him last week. He brought up the old chestnut that Cruz Bustmante said the "N" word and he got away with it but if a Republican were to say it, we'd never hear the end of it and he would have to resign. Typical hypocrisy, says my medical professional.

So I said, well, to be fair to the press, they don't make stuff up that much, but if there are lots of events to report on something, they will. So if there's no one putting out press releases or filing lawsuits about Cruz's statement (it was a slip of the tongue when he was supposed to say "Niger", IIRC), they have nothing to report. They can't just post a story tomorrow that complains about Bustamante without there being "news" behind it. So I pointed that out and noted that therefore, apparently, there were no civil rights groups, or Republicans putting out press releases on the subject, hence the lack of coverage.

He agreed.

Next, he mentioned that the TV news was reporting biased coverage of Iraq, covering only the bad stuff but not the good stuff. So people don't know what's really happening over in Iraq.

I agreed that people do not know what's really happening in Iraq and that the coverage was skewed (heh - sneaky of me, I know), and then I pointed out that it must be difficult to run with the "new school opened" story when a bomb nearly blew up Wolfowitz, or to report on the power coming online in a small town when a Hummer blew up on the same day. So we don't know what's really going on in Iraq, we both agreed. I also noted that no one would watch the news if it was all "good news", so there's an inherent problem with the format if one wants to get out "good news" - who would watch the News At 10 if it was all about dogs being rescued, schools opening, happy people hugging each other, etc? He agreed.

Then he brought up the number of soldiers dead in Iraq and mentioned that just walking across the street here in the US is almost as dangerous as Iraq. Why, there are more people who die here in the US every year in the military just in training accidents than die in Iraq, he says.

I agreed that there are always fatalities during training exercises, for sure, but can we really afford to lose one soldier a day for years in Iraq? (He looked pale when I said that number.) And, I continued, as he mentioned, we really don't know how many soldiers in Iraq commit suicide, or shoot themselves to get to go home, or how many are injured and not reported in the death statistics. Then I dropped the numbers; 1600 soldiers with missing limbs or serious brain damage so far, almost 200 dead since George declared major combat operations over, more dead since then than died during the war, and I lamented that this was probably Saddam's plan all along.... let the US come in with little to no resistance and pick them off at will later so that Iraq will become another Vietnam and have to pull out. I lamented at how cunning and nasty Saddam must be and I wish we had caught him while we had the chance. We shouldn't have let him get away like bin Laden...

His chin fell and he sheepishly changed the subject. Remember, he still thinks I'm a right-winger.

So then it's on to another topic, but you get the picture by now. He's not a rabid freeper, so he's stuck when you present the facts against his beliefs, and as long as he doesn't have the ability to label me and dismiss me with a Rovian slur, he has to listen to me. It was schweet!

One more thing, he mentioned later that every president who went to war was a one-termer, and he started listing all these old presidents when I interrupted him with, "Didn't Bill Clinton start a war? - He got relected." and he stopped in his tracks. Then I mentioned, to keep my stealth position intact, that didn't Ronald Reagan attack Grenada and some other place and he was also re-elected?

He shut up instantly. I suspect the claim was something he hear from Rush or whoever's standing in for that addict these days, and he was shocked to find that the statement was so easily exposed as having no foundation.

heh. It was fun, and I just may have made a GOP supporter think a lot less of the current Iraq situation and his party than he did last week. :)

Do any of you have similar success stories? I think we need to report the good news every now and then, without the filter of the media, don't you?

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[arcane1]

1. if this poor guy would just cancel his Cable Tv service

he would be a liberal, it sounds like

reminds me of many I knew from the southeast, they really were liberal progressive people, they just didn't KNOW it because TV makes them think they are conservative

[Cronus Protagonist]

2. I agree - he even donated some of his work to me when I was broke

That's not the trait of a Republican, yet that's how he votes and he doesn't like liberals at all, he thinks. Yet he likes me. Go figure :)

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[arcane1]

3. repube TV uses that tough-guy "sports talk" all the time

lures them in like little children of Hamlin

[Sagan]

4. Ha! You almost got me...

It's a trick post.

There ARE no thinking GOP supporters.

[onebigbadwulf]

5. I think

most medical personal support republicans because they are trying to pass pain and suffering caps which would lower the cost of mal practice insurance over-night.

Unfortunately, I think the government needs to step in some way or another on malpractice. A lot of good doctors cannot practice medicine anymore because their premiums are so high.

[Upfront]

7. Big Bad Wolf

You are right on this, in my openion. My Doctor almost had to quit his practice over this. To long a story for hear, but it opened my eyes. It is a two way street. Some right on both sides, and something needs to happen.

[Jacobin]

6. After reading about this conversation

I would have to differ with you that he is a "thinking" voter. He's probably in the top one percent and likes the tax cuts and limits on malpractice awards and is simply listening to Faux News to help him justify his vote with respect to the atrocities he supports by voting for imperialistic, gluttinous, psychopaths who have taken over the American government.