We are putatively a democracy, and those with our shared beliefs (I agree with your stances in this article, I've not read enough of you to make that general yet) outnumber those who do not by a substantial margin.

In some cases, this is just as much due to blind belief as it is in the case of your friend.

However, it's no accident that the most educated parts of the populace hold similar ideation as to the direction society should go. The answers, then, are not so difficult.

They are, however, anathema to those of us who prefer reason to force. Unfortunately, we have to overcome that. Those who would drag us back to the dark ages have no such qualms.

We need to mobilize like they do. Pick a few basic issues, and march in lock step. We, on the American Left (which would be center right in most of the world) need to get out there and basically fire every conservative politician and enforcer at the polls with people who are ready, willing, and able to act.

The funny thing about conservatives is that they will defend the status quo no matter what it is. So our duty, if we're to move forward, is to tell them to stand out of the way of the adults in the room and adjust the status upwards.

It will benefit them as well as the rest of us. They may not realize this. Babies often need their diapers changed. Once the change is made and given a bit of time to become the new normal, the right will defend it as rabidly as they defend the current state of affairs.