I have a very good friend that is a right wing Conservative...

...who voted for Bush over Gore, in 2000. He was very happy when Bush won. He believed the whole shtick that was going on at the time, about restoring honesty and integrity to the White House, and so on, and so on. He didn’t vote for Kerry either, because he bought into the whole "swift boat" "flip flop" nonsense as well.

Now I need to say that this guy is no dummy, and he’s no freeper. He’s educated, and he’s an Electrical Engineer like I am. He’s also a Navy Veteran from the Vietnam Era, and has voted Republican since Nixon. He is just not politically savvy. He doesn’t surf the internet and read political websites, and gets his news from the local paper and the local news stations. He's not politically active, and does not do "causes." Ideologically, he is what I like to refer to as an “old school conservative.” He believes in Government out of our lives, fiscal responsibility, strict adherence to the Constitution of the United States. He also lives his life like that as well.

I was chatting with him today, and somehow we got on to the subject of who is going to be running in 2008 on the Republican ticket. I told him "I thought that McCain was going to get the nod, but Jeb Bush may be in the running as well."

The answer that he gave surprised me; he said that "he felt that Bush has betrayed the whole concept of being Conservative, and that he feels like he was taken for a ride by the newspapers, and the news shows on TV. He felt as if he was sold a bill of goods, and that what we have now running the country, is not what the media promised us." He also said that "every single one of them are crooks."

"The main reason that he didn’t vote for Gore in 2000," he told me, "was that the papers and the news shows had him painted as some sort of a crank. They made fun of him constantly about 'inventing the Internet,' and showed nothing but edited clips to make it seem as if he was a dry dull person." He said that "it was as if the news went out of their way to make it seem as if he had an attitude that he was better than you, and that he was talking down to you." In short, all he knew about Gore from the 2000 election was what he heard from the media.

What changed his mind? He told me, that "he and his wife went to see 'An Inconvenient Truth' the other day." He told me "he had no idea that Al Gore was so damn smart, and could be so passionate and animated about anything." He was surprised that "the guy could take something as complex as global warming, and put it in terms that anyone could understand." He also said "he was expecting a lot of doom and gloom talk, but did not feel any of that, and actually left the show feeling that he can do something to help."

Then I heard him say something that made me almost have to pick myself off of the floor. He then said that the Democrats need to find a way to get him as their nominee in 2008, because he would definitely vote for him over McCain or another Bush.

Now I feel happy that I put the bug in his wife’s ear about checking out his movie. She took him, and she said "he enjoyed it more than she did." There’s no way he would have seen it without a little "covert prodding." ;)

That is a great story, I think a lot people realize that they have been had. They are as you say intelligent folks, your friend could describe a hundred guys I worked with. (Really, I have worked for both GE, now Lockheed Martin, and Westinghouse, now Northrup-Grumman, in Underwater Systems). Most of them were apolitical, as was I until I became ill and I started watching C-span in lieu of soap operas.

The media has killed us, their flashy contentless slanted tripe packaged as news. I am hoping the love of $ will lead one of the networks to allow a "liberal" network. Not too "Liberal" mind you, a New Dem type of thing. MSNBC is a likely candidate, IMHO...

the right wing's way to separate themselves from this horrible (mis)administration. While true conservatism may have some admirable concepts, it does not exist. The Conservatism that your friend and others of his ilk are practicing is nothing more than a noble name for greed and selfishness. While its great that your friend is considering voting democratic, I'm sure when the time comes, he will come up with a swift-boat type excuse to vote for the GOP.

a "true conservative" than the "neo-conservatives" or the "neo-liberals" who are running roughshod over the Constitution for money. I don't think "true conservatives" really want alot of the things that these "neo-conservatives" on the radio and TV are pushing under the banner of "conservative".

Think about that.

...I have to disagree. If anything the "conservatives" of today are the worst offenders of doing everything that they have accused the Liberals of doing in the past, and it is starting to show it's true colors to even mis-informed people. Blatant overspending, gross mismanagement of the budget, using the military to interfere abroad instead of for domestic protection, shredding the constitution and attempting a "big brother is watching you constantly" presence. This is stuff that Conservatives used to berate Liberals for, and now you see that they are far exceeding the left in every aspect of that.

In short, they are "out-liberaling" the very liberals they look down on,and it is going to affect them. The reason I switched from a Nixon conservative to a Carter Democrat was that Nixon was one of the worst offenders of wire tapping, domestic spying, etc. Am I going to have me turn in my Democratic voter registration card because I used to be a Conservative as well? Or do you think I am considering for a second voting for McCain?

Come on, this is supposed to be a big tent, after all.

By the way, true "Liberalism" does not exist either. ;)

;-)

Bush is the paragon of conservatism. As was Reagan beofre him.

nt

That just blows my mind.

a couple of years. By then a lot of people may come around to realizing Gore is the guy we need. It may be the first movie to directly lead to a president being drafted by his party and then elected to office.

his greatest ally in getting his message out. By 2008 we will have had three (probably) disastrous hurricane seasons and more flooding, tornadoes and more drought out west. As the weather gets worse, Gore gains credibility. As Al has said many times "political will is a renewable resource."

people liked him before and they will like him a lot more now, especially since he lost his beltway advisors. He won the popular vote once already and that was before the public knew that all republicans currently in office were criminals.

What a great post.

I'd like to say that the line regarding "...Government out of our lives, fiscal responsibility, strict adherence to the Constitution of the United States.", sounds more like Democratic principals than ever. I get the feeling, those have been OUR principals all along, but were stolen by Republicans. But that's not what I want to say here.

What I want to say is how this movie is less about global warming than simply The Truth. In this case, I find it absolutely freeing to see how even your conservative friend has warmed up to the truth about who Gore really is. It's testament to the great power held by the media. This explains our frustration and anger. And to see it dissolve like this, is so freeing. It reinforces the absolute neccessity in making certain the truth is not covered over.

I still find that Gore is missing a major point. And I anxiously await the day when the world is ready and willing to hear the rest of the story. We obviously are not ready yet, as when I mention it, there is still resistance to it. I'll just put it in a term that is more acceptable. I know this isn't a post about global warming, but I want to put this here. Global warming is due to man made carbon dioxide concentration increases, among other things. But that's only part of the story. And in fact, not the most important part. The most important part of this equation is demand.

Thanks for your post. I'm happy to see that the truth still works.

if they were more like your friend, then we could have gotten the neocons out of government BEFORE they made the mess they did. Then it would just be two different ideologies of how to best run the country, not one ideology of how to best run the country and one ideology of how to best profit from running the country.

Like so many, the OP's friend voted against his own interests until he became informed.
Intelligence has little chance to manifest itself unless someone is informed.

and as soon as the intelligent person realizes that there is information that they don't know, they will seek it out. I too had a friend who voted Bush the first time around. He's a fairly middle ground guy and he believed the media's exaggerations about Gore being a radical lefty. However, the last straw for him was when Condi got promoted... for lying to the american people. That was when it finally hit him that Bush is in no way a decent, honest person, let alone a good leader. (although I get the impression that he suspected ever since the war started.)

He didn't seek information, he was confronted with it. His intelligence shows in the fact that it actually changed his views.

Many uninformed but nevertheless intelligent people simply don't know there's 'another side to the story' out there, so as far as they know there's no information to seek out.

That's one of the dangers of ignorance... you don't even know what you don't know.

The two are not mutually exclusive.

once they realize it is there.

tjwash said:

"In short, all he knew about Gore from the 2000 election was what he heard from the media."

Exactly. Unless you're a personal friend of Gore, or you happen to be physically present at an event where he is speaking, the only way you CAN know about him is from the media.

There are two points. And neither of them are "The Republicans control the media."

1) People in this time and place have not learned to view media critically. They have not been taught to question what media tells them. In other words, the supposedly great education system in this country has (again) not done its job.

2) Democrats need to find ways to make their voices heard through the media, no matter who controls it. That also includes creating messages that are begging to be heard. (Which none of the Gore campaign commercials did.) The current media consultants aren't doing their job. Fire 'em and get someone else.

not real political, old school type and reasons with the information he has at hand.

Sounds like he could almost be a Democrat with a little more education. :)

These are the people who could bring the Republican party back to it's roots.

:)

that someone who twice voted for bush is not stupid. Not just uninformed, but stupid.

I'm amazed what people base friendship on.

The thing is, if people actually do see these films, and the same was true for "F 9/11," their opinions will change. But most of them reject them out of hand, refusing to even see them, taking their cues from Bush*. You've inspired me to try to get my mother to see "An Inconvenient Truth." She's an O'Reilly fan, and I feel as if I'm beating my head against a wall to try to get her to listen to me. But I think it's worth another shot, especially since she votes, usually the wrong way...:banghead:

But she might be up for a movie...:bounce:

as gore was seen in htis movie, htis man would be saying hte same thing about the media dissing kerry to point of not even seeing hte real man. like gore. and the same will be said about many of our dem runners.....

just saying