Swift Boat trash convinced my mother-in-law to vote chimp.

[Timefortruth]

She had been wavering but said last night that those ads about the Vietnam War convinced her Kerry shouldn't be president. I practically begged her to research the truth, and argued that he earned the right to protest the war, in fact people like him caused an earlier end to the war, etc.

Now she obviously isn't one of the great political thinkers of our time, in fact she is a life long Republican. But the last time I talked to her two weeks ago I'd swear she was going for Kerry.

She lives in Ohio.

[WoodrowFan]

1. don't give up.

don't give up yet. keep reminding her that Kerry's actual shipmates are supporting him.

[AP]

2. Get her a copy of Going Upriver.

[endnote]

8. Yes! This will convince her otherwise. She needs VISUALS!

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. All I can say is go out and get someone to cancel her vote out.

Ask her what she thinks of Bush protesting the war by basically buying his way out of serving. Ask her how that is better character. :hi:

[arewenotdemo]

16. The killer is that he was gung-ho for the war!

He just didn't think he should do any of the fighting or dying.

And now that he's a "war president" he's more than willing to pull the trigger on a war that has already cost tens of thousands lives. It's "bring 'em on" time.

The Repukes all know this. They're just shameless.

[bif]

4. I met a Swift boat Vet a couple weeks ago

Who served with Kerry. (And he's a personal friend of his) He said it was all total bullshit. I could tell this guy was sincere.

[Sallyrat]

5. Tell her to go to consortorium news

an excellent article of who is behind this and how is associated with Dr. Moonie.......

[Lefta Dissenter]

9. I had not seen this site before

thanks for the advice... just starting to take a look! :hi:

http://www.consortiumnews.com/

[blm]

6. Your mom believes Moonie propaganda over official US Navy records?

Your mom believes Moonie propaganda over the Congressional RECORD which proves Kerry spoke against the POLICY MAKERS and was speaking FOR other vets and relayed their testimony of atrocities?

Your mom believes Moonie propaganda and would have preferred that the Vietnam war CONTINUE so MORE soldiers would join those in prisons and on the list of the dead and wounded?

Time to use STRAIGHT LOGIC on your mom.

[Timefortruth]

18. It is exactly the point I made.

That the government, George Bush's government, supports Kerry's version of events. Her answer (which I've heard before on other issues)is that if that were true it would be on the news.

I told her it has been on the news, it just didn't get the saturation coverage.

I do wish there were some requirement that time be given to correct absolute lies.

[redstateblues]

7. Like my Mother-in-law, she would have never voted for Kerry

and was just looking for an excuse to vote Bush. My mother in law said it was the Cambodia story that made her doubt Kerry- It's bull, but how do you call your mother in law on that kind of stuff without creating a big family stink when she was never serious about kerry.

[Ladybast]

10. MAKE your Mom read this editorial

Published in September by author E. L. Doctorow. It probes deeply to the core of the human issues about just what is wrong with Bush:

http://www.easthamptonstar.com/20040909/col5.htm

The Unfeeling President
I fault this president for not knowing what death is. He does not suffer the death of our 21-year-olds who wanted to be what they could be. On the eve of D-Day in 1944 General Eisenhower prayed to God for the lives of the young soldiers he knew were going to die. He knew what death was. Even in a justifiable war, a war not of choice but of necessity, a war of survival, the cost was almost more than Eisenhower could bear.

But this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind for it. You see him joking with the press, peering under the table for the weapons of mass destruction he can't seem to find, you see him at rallies strutting up to the stage in shirt sleeves to the roar of the carefully screened crowd, smiling and waving, triumphal, a he-man.

He does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should mourn. He is satisfied during the course of a speech written for him to look solemn for a moment and speak of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

But you study him, you look into his eyes and know he dissembles an emotion which he does not feel in the depths of his being because he has no capacity for it. He does not feel a personal responsibility for the 1,000 dead young men and women who wanted to be what they could be.

They come to his desk not as youngsters with mothers and fathers or wives and children who will suffer to the end of their days a terribly torn fabric of familial relationships and the inconsolable remembrance of aborted life . . . they come to his desk as a political liability, which is why the press is not permitted to photograph the arrival of their coffins from Iraq.

How then can he mourn? To mourn is to express regret and he regrets nothing. He does not regret that his reason for going to war was, as he knew, unsubstantiated by the facts. He does not regret that his bungled plan for the war's aftermath has made of his mission-accomplished a disaster. He does not regret that, rather than controlling terrorism, his war in Iraq has licensed it. So he never mourns for the dead and crippled youngsters who have fought this war of his choice.

(snip)

[Meryton]

11. print outs

Hey

I've been sending my MIL material from online articles. She doesn't know much about the Internets, but hates prince george with a passion. Her sil has begun giving money to republicans in western NC and is trying to talk her out of voting for Kerry. So what I send helps prop her up against the sil's attacks. Anyway - it is just an idea from a new poster. Sometimes, having something in black and white makes the message more concrete. Esp for the older generation. my mil is 82.

btw, thanks to all of you for the great links. Wonderful site.

[newyawker99]

17. Hi K E rocksNC!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[farmbo]

12. Don't take No for an answer.Don't let her settle for Bush.Make her think!

Ask her what SPECIFICALLY concerns her about the Swiftboat/POW Liars...then debunk it.

At least tie it up and send it into overtime.

[Walt Starr]

13. I love my mother-in-law greatly, however...

of this happened in my family, I'd be filing for divorce.

[Lakerstan]

14. William Rood is the answer

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-0408220342aug22,1,3455991.story?coll=chi-newsspecials-hed

<snip>

There were three swift boats on the river that day in Vietnam more than 35 years ago--three officers and 15 crew members. Only two of those officers remain to talk about what happened on February 28, 1969.

One is John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate who won a Silver Star for what happened on that date. I am the other.

<snip>

But Kerry's critics, armed with stories I know to be untrue, have charged that the accounts of what happened were overblown. The critics have taken pains to say they're not trying to cast doubts on the merit of what others did, but their version of events has splashed doubt on all of us. It's gotten harder and harder for those of us who were there to listen to accounts we know to be untrue, especially when they come from people who were not there.

[roseBudd]

15. If Kerry's character from 35 years ago is an issue then so too is Bush's

Driving drunk with a kid brother in the car, George W ran over some garbage cans. Came home and belligerantly confronted his father with, "I hear you are looking for me. Let's go outside mano to mano."

That is beyond the pale.