...your conservative relatives turn on Bush. It can be as subtle as what happened to me yesterday, when I recieved an mildly anti-Bush e-mail from my brother.
My brother is a solid, decent man. The most decent man I know. He's a police officer. He voluteers in his community. He's fun to be around as well and can have a laugh. He's not a fundie, but is likely a Christian.
more below...
For six years now my brother has remained steadfastly silent on the issue of George W. Bush and his leadership of the United States. He has not expressed any admiration for the man, just a generosity that counteracted all the negativity coming from his largely progressive family.
He's a law and order guy. A personal responsibility guy. He would simply counter Bush bashing with "I'm sure his intentions are good" and "they seem to be trying their best." Occasionally he would quote from a conservative news source of website simply to ask if there was more to the story than what we all were portraying.
To a fault, my brother seemed willing to cut George a break and let him do his job.
Then, yesterday, I got this from him:
>
> >
> > >>
> > >>Donald Rumsfeld is giving the president his daily briefing.
> > >> > He concludes by saying: "Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were
>killed."
> > >> >
> > >> > "OH NO!" the President exclaims. "That's terrible!"
> > >> >
> > >> > His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously
>watching
> > >> > as
> > >> > the President sits, head in hands.
> > >> >
> > >> > Finally, the President looks up and asks, "How many is a
>brazillion?"
> > >>
> > >>
> >
> >
>
Subtle, but he's now joined the chorus without impugning the man's compassion and humanity. Bush is a good guy, well intentioned, just not very smart.
To me it shows a profound opening; frame that is acceptable to conservatives. Bush is a good guy, but he's shown himself to be a little slow, perhaps not up to the job.
This seems to be worth a thousand "Bush is Evil" or "Bush doesn't care" style approaches.
The other side of it is, of course, the question of who has been manipulating this simple fellow into making these bad decisions. Everyone here knows the answer to that, but how does that story get told in a successful manner?