How to Talk to Your Non-Political or Low Info Voter Friends
We’ve got only a month until the election, so we need to focus on Getting Out the Vote for Democrats.
Most of us are unlikely to be able to change any minds that are already made up, in this amount of time. However, most of us have some non-political friends or low info voter friends that we might possibly be able to influence.
How should we talk to our friends? Gently. Kindly. A lot of people are under a lot of stress right now, due to rising prices and other factors.
What should we talk to them about? Here’s are a couple of essays that contain info we can use to try to influence others to get out to the polls and vote for Dems.
The first is by Dan Froomkin, journalist at Presswatchers.org. We need to be aware that Dems are trying to solve the problems related to inflation, crime, and immigration. And that Republicans have no solutions but are blocking Democrats’ proposed solutions.
I will keep going back to this quote to re-read it during this next month of Get Out the Vote activities and I hope you will too. These are such important factors of which to become and remain aware. The truth about these matters is the reason why as many of us as possible all need to vote Democrat.
This is about media giving us incomplete or distorted or wrong information. Here is a quote from it. It’s important for all of us — and our friends too, if we have the opportunity to inform them — to be aware of these distortions in mainstream media.
“These reporters and editors maintain that they are above the fray, and that there is nobility in refusing to take sides.
But to generate the kind of both-sides coverage they do, they adopt Republican talking points and accept countless Republican lies as truth. They consider it a given that Republicans are “stronger” on inflation, crime, and immigration than Democrats, despite the party’s abject failure to make actual policy proposals.
They unquestioningly adopt the view that undocumented immigrants are a bad thing, that teaching students empathy and citizenship is suspect, and that anti-racism is racism against white people. None of that is true.
At one time or another, most of our major news organizations have accurately explained what is really happening: That the GOP has become violent, deceitful, fueled by white grievance, and that should it gain power it may never give it back.
At the very least, there should be a boilerplate paragraph to that effect in every story that is even remotely about the upcoming elections.
But if they were doing their job, every election story would be wholly about that, from now until Election Day.”
Here is a second essay that can help inform us well. This one is from Thom Hartmann, who is the number one progressive radio talk show host in the U.S.
Here is a quote from it.
“So how did so many Americans end up believing the many lies that are daily pushed by the GOP?
In a word: repetition, just like the science shows works. Here are a few of their greatest hits, with each followed by my rebuttal:”
Hartmann covers several factors. He notes about tax cuts for the wealthy that “in the 40 years since Reagan first started the practice of massive Republican tax cuts for the richest Americans, there has been a $50 trillion transfer of wealth from America’s working class into the money bins of our morbidly rich.” Instead of increasing prosperity, as the GOP claims, these tax cuts just transfer money from the working class to the rich.
Hartmann goes on to tell use the truth — in contrast to the GOP lies that fill Right Wing media & even much of mainstream media — about other subjects. He covers immigration, minimum wage increases, unions, elections, guns, separation of church and state, climate change and international relations.
So there we have them — truths to be aware of, that low information voters and nonpolitical people may not know. It’s easy to see how people who don’t know these things may not think it’s important to vote. So we can give our friends the facts and encourage them to vote.
There’s no need to talk to all our friends about all of these issues. We can find out what issues are most important to each friend and focus on those.
We do, in time, need to change our media landscape. To disable Right Wing media’s lying machine, here’s what we can do:
Time to Solve Our Propaganda Problems as the Military Do during War
To shift the mainstream media landscape, here’s what we can do there:
What we have time for now though — before the midterms — is to inform our our apolitical and low info voter friends of the good reasons to vote Democrat. May we all make good efforts in this area and all have good luck.
Catch you good folks later.
