My aunt is a Reagan Democrat. She actually likes * on a personal level...

[Timahoe]

but thinks he is totally not up to the job and is in over his head.

She tells me she'd support Edwards (she used to be for Clark), but will vote for * if it is Kerry vs Bush. She can't get past Kerry's connection to Jane Fonda and Ted Kennedy. (I told her about the Jane Fonda pic being fake, but she won't change her mind).

She also pointed out to me that if Edwards is nominated, he'll be the only major party candidate to come out against NAFTA, and he might pick up a lot of Perot and Buchanan voters who are pissed off with the high deficits and war.

[aquart]

1. That's nice.

So, basically, she's a Bush voter who intends to vote for Bush again.

[Timahoe]

3. No, she's a Bush voter who will crossover

we need a candidate who can win crossover votes.

[incapsulated]

2. Well...

If she is representative of a cross section of that demographic, expect to see a lot more of Hanoi Jane. :(

[AngryYoungMan]

4. Not to dis your Aunt, but...

...this is an interesting example of how people will respond both to extremely complex ideas and to extremely simple ones, if they're told to.

In other words, while most sophisticated democrats argue that the public is "too stupid" to understand complex issues, the reality is that it's quite possible to get people to change their minds based on REFERENCES TO highly complex ideas.

My point is, your Aunt is speaking like she understands NAFTA, and yet doesn't understand the Jane Fonda meme.

Like, Republicans hold "Whitewater" against Clinton (since they were repeatedly told to) even though it's so turgid and intricate. I don't fully understand it myself.

Terrorist networks, NAFTA, tax laws, Shiite groups...the most complex stuff in our world gets trotted out as "talking points," blended in with all the drudge crap and the imbecilic "stay the course"/"war president" rhetoric.

Complexity is not the enemy of democracy! People are willing to think about complicated things, or at least, to change their minds based on somebody telling them what those things mean.

Again, no disrespect to your Aunt. Your post simply reminded me of the point.

[tobius]

5. Elitists like to think that someone who disagrees with them

has to have been duped, ie-"somebody telling them what things mean" or they don't understand what is going on ie-(stupid)

Believe it or not there are people that believe Jane Fondas actions during that protest era were harmful to the troops still fighting. And they will associate Kerrys words on some level' He reported to Congress that U.S. soldiers had "personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam." 'with the feelings they have for other protesters.