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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFor what its worth, I may have actually helped convert at least one vote to Biden.
I was on Facebook (yes, I know for all the usual suspects out there...Boo!...Hiss!...How dare I!....whatever....) and I had made a post that served as an outreach for people who might be upset about the state of our country but might also be reluctant to vote for Biden because they might disagree with him on some of the issues. (And there are a fair amount of those people out there.) My approach to this specific audience was to consider a vote for Biden not as an endorsement of his positions, but rather a much needed "reset button" that would keep the country from crashing completely under Trump. And that it was silly to think there will ever be a candidate who will agree with you on 100% of your personal beliefs.
Anyways, one of my friends replied to my post. He leans conservative, but not to an overwhelming degree. This was a guy who now claims he voted for the Libertarian Gary Johnson in 2016, but I for almost certainly remember him actually saying he voted for Trump. However, in recent years, he seemed to grow more and more critical of Trump on his immigration policies and xenophobic attitudes.
He was very polite and cordial, but he said he had trouble considering a vote for Biden. He claimed if if was someone like Pete Buttigieg, he would not have a problem voting for him, but that Biden just seemed too old and he thought he might be suffering from dementia.
I responded to him by encouraging him not to watch the deceiving, five second clips of Biden stumbling over a word that were being floated around social media, and instead to watch a Biden speech in its entirety as Biden comes off as an extremely eloquent and moving public speaker.
He just kind of shook off my comment and politely demurred by saying, "I respect your opinion." And at that point, I simply thought that was that.
Several hours later, he makes a post of his own on Facebook. Mind you, it wasn't what one might call glowing enthusiasm. Basically, he said that he hated that there were no major party candidates who he felt represented his true beliefs, but that circumstances had basically forced him to vote for a Democrat for the first time after voting exclusively for Republican and Libertarian candidates all of his life up to that point.
I know--damning by faint praise, right?
But a vote's a vote, and that's one more vote into the millions who will have voted for Joe Biden by night's end.
Only downside is that he's in Maryland, so the outcome for the state isn't really in doubt. But if anything, that says even more that he would vote--albeit reluctantly--for the Democratic candidate even in a state where Biden didn't really need his vote.
FM123
(10,053 posts)Thank you!
MyOwnPeace
(16,926 posts)Way to go - we bring them in 1 vote at a time - and when we're done - WE WIN!!!!!
MLAA
(17,288 posts)cornball 24
(1,475 posts)Bradshaw3
(7,520 posts)And what we do as individuals does matter. Imagine if a million people did what you did.
Grown2Hate
(2,010 posts)thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of stories like this in this election; brave souls trying to at least spark a reasonable conversation and winning some one over. Remember that proudly as the results start coming in!
PS. Glad I proofread this! My auto-correct had "radical conversations" and "running some one over".
peggysue2
(10,828 posts)We spoke about 6 weeks ago and she was concerned about violence in the cities and the spin on Biden = socialism. We talked about it and she listened. She's never liked Trump but was falling for the anti-Dem propaganda.
Yesterday? She did nothing but complain about Trump and his lies, particularly on Covid.
"He's just a terrible person," she said.
One vote/voter at a time. It all adds up!
ecstatic
(32,701 posts)another republican in a swing state. A silent Biden supporter. Lol