Daily Kos :: How We Lost Two Clinton-Clinton-Gore Voters
My parents always vote, and neither of them has ever voted for a losing Presidential candidate. (Gore does not count, because he, in fact, did win.) In fact, I don't believe my father has ever voted for any candidate--even city council--who did not win the election; he's like an oracle.
They were both teachers. My mother was in the peace corp. My father is an education reformer. Both of them are well-educated and watch the news. They are pro-choice. They believe in separation of church and state. They support gun control. They understand that insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies are crooks. And they don't like outsourcing.
They both voted for Clinton--and though they were outraged by his affair with Monica, they didn't take it out on Al Gore. They voted for Gore and neither of them like Bush.
And so, my sister and I remain humiliated and angry that we could not convince them to vote for Kerry. We would send them articles, we'd rant, we'd rave, we'd explain until we were blue in the face, and the responses we would get back were baffling.
I love my parents, and I will always love them, but this election put a wedge between us. It brought out some ugly things in them, but I believe those ugly things are a reflection of the electorate--and that we have to understand them in order to win.
My parents are part of the 11% of Gore voters that we lost to Bush this year. We would have won if we held onto that 11%. We need to understand people like them and how to bring the best out of them, and counteract their worst instincts.
This kind of thing just tears me up strategy-wise. This dKos contributor talks in very blunt terms about how her middle-of-the road parents went to the dark side, and what we need to do to get them back.
I want to win, but I just can't see myself wanting to go to the stupid irrational places these folks would ask us to go in order to win back their (empty) minds.
'Tiz a puzzlement.
They were both teachers. My mother was in the peace corp. My father is an education reformer. Both of them are well-educated and watch the news. They are pro-choice. They believe in separation of church and state. They support gun control. They understand that insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies are crooks. And they don't like outsourcing.
They both voted for Clinton--and though they were outraged by his affair with Monica, they didn't take it out on Al Gore. They voted for Gore and neither of them like Bush.
And so, my sister and I remain humiliated and angry that we could not convince them to vote for Kerry. We would send them articles, we'd rant, we'd rave, we'd explain until we were blue in the face, and the responses we would get back were baffling.
I love my parents, and I will always love them, but this election put a wedge between us. It brought out some ugly things in them, but I believe those ugly things are a reflection of the electorate--and that we have to understand them in order to win.
My parents are part of the 11% of Gore voters that we lost to Bush this year. We would have won if we held onto that 11%. We need to understand people like them and how to bring the best out of them, and counteract their worst instincts.
This kind of thing just tears me up strategy-wise. This dKos contributor talks in very blunt terms about how her middle-of-the road parents went to the dark side, and what we need to do to get them back.
I want to win, but I just can't see myself wanting to go to the stupid irrational places these folks would ask us to go in order to win back their (empty) minds.
'Tiz a puzzlement.
posted by bluememe at 12/22/2004
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