Do you have a leftist you love? Are they “Feeling the Bern” or “Ready for Hillary?” Have you been failing in your attempts to sway them from the dark side?
In Part 1, I offered some strategies which should help you woo your friends and family members to the right side. I suggested you should accept the fact that your loved ones truly like socialism, avoid the Nazi references, engage the emotions and avoid personally attacking people leftists respect. Today, I’ll three more suggestions.
Questions not Answers
People who care deeply about political issues tend to forcefully condemn expressions of bad political dogma and passionately assert their own views, but this instinctual style of direct confrontation is usually the least successful in actually convincing people. When someone makes a forceful argument, people tend to get defensive and make forceful counterarguments, but these counterarguments often ignore substance and follow tangents or new avenues of attack, so what is gained in vigor is usually lost in focus.
In contrast when responding to a pointed question, an intellectually honest person must weigh the issue carefully thereby viewing the situation from a new angle. In this manner, carefully crafted questions often reveal contradictions in someone’s philosophy.
For instance, the Democrats are constantly arguing that the federal government is corrupted by the rich and powerful who buy favors and that the federal government must have more power to keep the rich in line. What if you asked, “If you believe politicians are in league with the rich elitists and are using federal power to benefit the wealthy, wouldn’t increasing the power of corrupt politicians just allow the rich to buy more favors?” For those who say the rich aren’t paying their fair share, ask them, “Exactly what would be a fair share?” Chances are that many leftists would propose numbers much lower than the wealthy’s current tax burden.
A carefully crafted question can often do far more to make someone reevaluate their views than a thousand forceful assertions. People often dismiss conclusions reached by others, but they tend to remember conclusions they reached for themselves.
Principles not Party
Let’s imagine you are trying to convince a young Democrat that conservatism is superior to Progressivism. You point out that conservatism is not about favoring big business but about empowering the humble individual entrepreneur to make it on his or her own. Conservatism is about defending the Constitution, fiscal responsibility and upholding religious and ethical values, and as the shining alternative to the political horrors that are Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, you present the beloved and inspiring face of Republicanism…Donald Trump. Are you seeing the problem?
Let’s just quickly review the biggest faces of the Republican Party for the millennial generation. We’ve got Bob Dole, George W. Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Donald Trump. I’m sorry folks, but none of these men are true alternatives to big government principles.
If you want to convince a socialist of the values of small government, then you can’t point to Republicans as a true alternative. You can certainly argue that Republican ideology is less corrupt and favors smaller government than that proposed by Democrats, but the simple truth is that Republican aspire to a different form of control over the population rather than true self-governance. If you fail to admit this, Millennials will rightly call you on your hypocrisy.
Instead of arguing that Republicans are the answer, admit that many of them are also part of the problem and ask the leftists to be a true revolutionaries and fight for the cause of liberty against both parties.
Plant Seeds and Love Them
Accept the fact the your best efforts may fail to convince socialists that socialism is bad and love the socialists anyway.
I know, it’s depressing, but if you think back to the political changes you’ve experienced over the years, I’d be willing to bet that anytime you’ve changed positions, there has been a single moment where you realized your values had changed preceded by many smaller moments in which you’ve questioned your prior values. I can’t think of a single time where someone has discussed something with me and I found myself turning a complete philosophical 180 through the course of the discussion, but I can think of dozens or perhaps even hundreds of comments that challenged my worldview, stuck with me and required me to think long and hard about what I truly believed. This is what you must do for others. If your mindset for every discussion is conversion or failure, then you better be prepared for a lot of disappointment.
We must love people. Sometimes we get so caught up in our frustration that we allow our politics to overshadow our friendship and even our kinship. If all anyone hears from you is condemnation, they will stop listening. People are of more value than politics, and if you let your anger control you, you’ll lose both the person and the argument.
Your job is not to convert people but to plant seeds and water with love. Place a little idea in someone’s heart, and only time will reveal what might grow.
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