On Carl's suggestion below. Ten years ago, being unhappy with a serous bad posture, I followed up a suggestion made that I try traiing in the Alexander technique. I tried it and it squared my shoulders and readded an inch or so of the height I had lost. (After 10 years I'm still going, payign $30 a week.) The relevance here is that my trainer is a liberetarian. Early on I identified myself as a communist, laying the ground for having a shared premise of contempt for liberals and Democrats. That has led to many interesting and quite friendly conversations -- but it hasn't changed his mind. I really think that if "hard rightiests" are going to change, it is events rather than perusasion that will bring about that change.
Focusing on them is spending one's time planting in extremely unfertile ground.
Carrol
"C. G. Estabrook" wrote:
>
> Distressing as it may be to argue with your relative, maybe the rhetorical road
> of advance is to admit the major premise and show its implications. Her account
> certainly makes more sense on the face of it than the liberal narrative that BHO
> is a good-hearted guy who wants to Do the Right Thing but is tied down by
> Lilliputians from the Pentagon, the Republican party, and Wall Street. So he's
> forced to kill more and more people around the world...
>
> The morning news brings the Russian military response to the needlessly
> provocative and lying plan to put missiles into Romania; the Chinese, whom we
> have reason to be cooperative with, are outraged at the new arms for Taiwan; his
> death-squad leader plans the biggest killing spree yet in Afghanistan; and the
> assassination program in Pakistan is much expanded. Meanwhile, misery for the
> majority at home increases: there's no jobs bill or foreclosure relief and, as
> Doug notes, BHO doesn't "begrudge" bonuses for "savvy" Wall Street execs. (What
> deal have they really done?)
>
> All of this makes much more sense if your relative is right, and we're dealing
> with a certain Mr. Scratch, whose aim is to sow murder, confusion, and despair
> around the world... --CGE
>
> Dennis Perrin wrote:
> >
> > ... In my recent experience, attempting to show Obama as he
> > actually is, whether anecdotally or analytically, is largely a waste of
> > breath. One rightist relative, a Palin fan, remained convinced that
> > Obama is The Devil. Not a metaphorical demon, but Satan in human form
> > prepared to enslave God's country. I do not exaggerate this. It blew my
> > mind. Trying hard not to scoff, I patiently countered that if Obama is
> > Satan, and if he's continuing many of Bush's policies, then doesn't it
> > follow that --
> >
> > No it doesn't! I was quickly told. Bush was flawed, but he was up
> > against socialists and traitors who tore him down. Obama is using Bush's
> > mask to subvert whatever remained of the ex-president's legacy and usher
> > in the darkness. I may be fooled by this, but she wasn't.
> >
> > That's when I poured my first vodka, went outside and hit a blunt. The
> > bare brown trees were beautiful. Squirrels chased each other. Crows
> > squabbled over a smashed skunk just down the street. Clearly,
> > organizing's not in my blood.
> >
> > Dennis
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