I'm conservative. How would you convince me to be liberal (in terms of U.S. politics)?
There’s only a couple ways you can convince anyone of anything. And that depends on what you value. As Sam Harris said, if someone doesn’t value logic, what logical argument are you going to present to convince them otherwise? It just isn’t going to work. They don’t buy into that system.I believe my logic is sound based on my values. Many conservatives I’ve spoken with also hold this to be true. The only difference I perceive is that I can hammer away at your values altogether, whereas mine have good defenses. American Conservatives don’t seem to believe in “do to others as you would like to be done to you.” The Golden Rule. They may think they do. But instead of how I choose to follow such a guideline, they will typically act in a totally different manner. They think “Oh, I don’t need help and I’ll never ask for it, so I’m never going to help my fellow man!” That is, until they are put into the shoes of a homeless man who lost his job, or a single mother drowning in financial issues, or a well-adjusted but decently well off person suddenly diagnosed with aggressive cancer. That’s the kind of thing that I seem to understand that conservatives do not.You can of course be persuaded emotionally. But I doubt you empathize with the plight of the poor and disenfranchised, or the nonbelievers, or the immigrants, or LGBT community, or apparently fucking anything but “the troops” and Christians and gun owners. So that’s out of the question.The only other option is to live it yourself. I suggest you try the Minimum Wage challenge. Start your life from scratch working on minimum wage and see how it works for you. See what it’s like to be hit with sickness or injury and how that decimates your finances. Try stepping into the shoes of ethnic Americans and nonChristians and see how their lives are different from what you are familiar with. Or how about spending time beneath the invisible drones in the Middle East, wishing for death over the anxiety of waiting for it to come.Conservatives would rather shed a tear for a flag that symbolizes a nation than the actual people who live and die by stupid, stupid policies that can easily be changed for the benefit of so many. If none of this fancies you, then I’m afraid my attempts would be futile.
Can a highly-educated idealist be a conservative?
Knowing in advance that I'm making an over-generalization here, I'm going to start with the presumption that MOST academics would consider themselves to be "liberal." I want to know whether or not its likely that a highly educated idealist would be a conservative. In order to answer this question successfully, I think it's important to, in your answer, also answer this question: What IS it that makes a conservative or a liberal? Those are labels that we throw around all the time, and I'm not sure we all really know exactly what that means. What are the KEY differentiations between liberals and conservatives? Does each group stand for and behind a group of principles, or are they just busy hating the other group? Answers that are thoughtfully articulated will be considered for Best Answer.
Libertarians, Green Party, others, Can you convince me to vote 3rd party?
Michael Bloomberg would be the only 3rd party/independent candidate I would endorse. To summarize: He was elected mayor of NYC after Giuliani who was quite possibly the most well liked mayor in NYC history. Not only has Bloomberg filled those shoes, he's actually more well liked than his predecessor. He's made significant progress in both crime and education. I believe his approval rating is over 75% at the moment. He obviously is doing a good job running the largest city in the country, so I have to think this would translate well if he were to run the entire US. I'm still going with Obama, but Bloomberg is an attractive candidate in many respects. Now whether or not he's going to actually run is a whole other question.