First hand experience with who, democrats? If that is your point then I have to disagree with you from my own personal experience. I've had a bunch of conversations over the last few years with Republican voters who have had zero interaction with anything except the mentioned straw/boogieman democrats. Almost all of those conversations have followed a path of "what would reasonable policy be for X" and then looking up the Republican policy vs the Democrat policy and then a tantrum.

They interacted with you though, didn't they? Sounds like you didn't sell them.