At the convention, they talked a lot about the value of neighbors, and the need to have respectful conversations with folk who think differently than yourself.
I live in a purple county west of Chicago, in a solidly blue state. I really do not know anything about any of my neighbors’ politics, with the exception of one older couple across the street. My wife is friends with the wife on FB, and has observed that she posts some religious and conservative material.
I pretty much just smile and wave w/ either of them - occasionally have very short neighborly conversations with the guy about houses or yards.
Last week the wife was taken away in an ambulance, but she is back home and apparently doing fine. I saw her sitting in the sun smoking a cigarette this morning as I came back from a bike ride, and I called her by name and said, “Hi - how are you doing!” And continued into my garage.
This morning she posted something on FB criticizing DNC comments about abortion, saying abortion should be (IIRC) “safe and rare.” For the life of me, I can’t imagine any upside to entering into any sort of a conversation with these folk about social issues - and I can imagine any number of downsides. I’ll continue to smile and wave.
We live on a private deaf-end road, just us and two neighbors. My gf knew the two neighbors before deciding to purchase the land and build the house I share with her now.
We are probably the only democrats around here. We all celebrated Obama victories and cried about Trump.
Listen, if you’re truly serious about wanting to persuade another person’s mind, tips from a thread aren’t going to cut it. I strongly, strongly advise you to do your homework and read (or listen) up on ways that actually work. The process is not intuitive, but they have a track record better than anything else recorded.
To me, the choice between Republican and Democrat administrations has been laid bare over the past 30 some years.
After 12 years of Reagan/Bush, we found ourselves in a recession.
After 8 years of Clinton, we had a budget surplus.
8 years of Bush gave us the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression.
With Obama we had 7+ years of steady, sustained growth.
Then, after 4 years of Trump it’s record unemployment and riots in the streets.
We’re back on track with 4 years under Biden.
Where do we go from here?
Now, lots of people will argue that this reflects factors beyond the control of any one president, and they’d be right. But the democrats are better for the working/middle class, and a strong middle class is best for the economy as a whole. Trickle down economics is just a cash grab, and we have decades of actual evidence that it does not work as advertised.