It is not enough to be correct. You also have to be smart. And telling people who could be won over that actually, no, you’re not on our side, you’re one of them—“you are Right Wing”—is a monumentally stupid opening move.
Stop telling people they are right wing. A lot of people—especially those most susceptible to right-wing rhetoric—think that who they are is fixed. Instead, insist that they are people who want the best for others (even if you don’t think that’s true enough yet). Tell them that they’re dragging around the anchors of right wing ideology, and that if they want things to be better, those ideas—which harm most people for the benefit of an unscrupulous few—should and can be left behind.
You’re still not going to win very often, but at least you aren’t throwing the game immediately.
No, absolutely not. Someone else suggested meeting people in the middle. I am not. Never accept the liberal smears that right wingers are the stupid ones. The most clueless people in politics call themselves ‘centrists’.
I quite specifically limited my approach to “people who could be won over”. Obviously the fascists cannot be won over. But propaganda exists, and people who are capable of being better people are influenced by it. None of us are immune. So we need to counter that, and telling everyone who isn’t already on our side that they will forever be our enemy is incredibly counter productive.
What I am saying is that Pacman Theory is not a thing. You cannot push people away and expect them to pop up behind you and have your back. If you tell someone that they are right wing while others are telling them it’s good to be right wing, you are not going to change their mind.
Now maybe you think that’s not a problem, that we can just get rid of them. Bad news: the numbers are not on our side. We need numbers, and the only source is terrible. That sucks, no argument. But it is also reality, I’m afraid.
We absolutely should not coddle liberals. We should insist that their ideas are stupid and dangerous, that they should get better ones, and—hey, wouldn’t you just know it—I have some that I can give you, for the low, low cost of being the better person you know you want to be.
We should not welcome them with open arms until they can be better people. But we really, really shouldn’t push them into the open arms of the right, because that’s how you actually enable fascism.
I used exactly the same approach in my original comment: you are correct; the tactical ideas should be changed.
Did you feel coddled?
Probably not.