I don't want them to learn anything. These people fear modernity, and they fear complexity. Their entire philosophy is grounded in keeping the mass of humanity in a perpetual state of fear, ignorance, and cruelty. They are not going to turn to each other and say, "I always knew there was solid evidence for climate change," or "It doesn't affect me if other people form a same-sex marriage or get an abortion." At most, they'll swallow hard and claim that America welcomes all hard-working immigrants (particularly if they're Catholic).
The notion that a polity requires "two healthy competing ideologies" is a conceit of those who profit from presenting the spectacle of this "competition." Compromise junkies like Obama look on decades of reactionary obstructionism and conclude that—this time—accommodation will be met with reconciliation. In fact, despite fleeting moments of clarity, cultural conservatives are preparing to bury their heads even deeper up their own hateful asses, and hoping they will learn anything other than to be more adroit liars is fruitless.
Demographically, they are doomed. The sooner they become an electoral irrelevancy the better. For all of us.
