[lbo-talk] Speaking of female candidates...

[John Thornton]

Matt wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 03, 2008 at 03:44:24PM -0700, Jordan Hayes wrote:
>
>   
>> John and Shag made good comments, but I'll just say that what I was 
>> specifically thinking of is that Palin says basically "This is what your 
>> daughters *should* do, but oh well, mine is different" ... Dukakis said 
>> "Even if it was my wife being raped and murdered, the death penalty is 
>> wrong" ...
>>
>> Sorry for being a little obtuse.
>>     
>
> Not necessary, and yes John and Shag made good points.  I guess what I
> [poorly] was trying to convey is: our political adversaries do not see
> the contradiction/hypocrisy/double-standard.
>
> Deep down, they know ab-only is not effective.  But it displays the
> appearance of prudish morality, and that is what matters.  The truth
> of facts like pregnancy rates, and even personally experiencing
> unplanned pregnancies, does not distract from the "Truthiness" they
> know in their guts.
>
> IOW, no "Aha!" moment for them, so it is politically pointless to point
> out.
>
>
> Matt

Don't assume everyone knows the data. Many people have no real knowledge 
of teen pregnancy rates and what works to move it one direction or the 
other..
It's easy to find people who believe something that they know nothing 
about and then show them the available data and let them see how it 
conflicts with what they believe.
If they are hardcore absolutists they won't be swayed but most people 
are more reasonable than that.
They believe something because their pastor said so but if you show them 
that the belief is unsupported by real world data they more often have 
no problem accepting that their pastor doesn't know everything.
No one points out Palin's hypocrisy to convince Palin to change but 
rather to show other more moderate people who may be inclined to believe 
Palin that this candidate is full of shit.

John Thornton