Reply #13: I'm a LIBERAL. Please stifle your cries of surprise. [View All]

[Pikku]

The question is how to spread this message to people who voted repub without understanding what they were voting for. My experience has been that many people voted B* despite the fact that they agreed with next to none of his policies.

"Neoconservative" means nothing to the Bush voters I've seen. Some of them hear the "conservative" part without hearing the "neo" part. What big a deal can such a small word part mean? Neo = new and new is always better, right?

Lakoff, ho, folks. New + conservative = new, shiny money-saving, cautious (even reluctant) interventionist.

Were you to pair the term "neocon" wih the description given by the CSM (posted below), not one of them would make the link.

"-Want the US to be the world's unchallenged superpower
-Share unwavering support for Israel
-Support American unilateral action
-Support preemptive strikes to remove perceived threats to US security
-Promote the development of an American empire
-Equate American power with the potential for world peace
-Seek to democratize the Arab world
-Push regime change in states deemed threats to the US or its allies"

I'd have to argue that the people I know who voted Bush here were isolationists in the CSM model. So our job might be to point out the differences between the isolationist model people thought they were voting for, and the neocon model, which they did, in fact, vote for but I doubt that they support.