Reply #8: OK, who is it? [View All]

Dean or Kucinich?

I could understand the rhetoric if it was aimed at neo-cons and Bush. But it's the stuff of circular firing squads.

"ImperiaLiberals"? I've heard of "CeLiberals" (Celebrity Liberals) and "Rad-Libs" (Radical Liberals), but this is a new one.

Being solicited for party solidarity by an over-medicated sleep-deprived Coffee Acheiver isn't exactly the jackboot heel of fascism decending on your face forever, nor even an afternoon. If a pushy party whip can "obliterate any vestige of hope you might have had" then your hope is shallow indeed.

The Campaign, the Party, the Government, the USA is YOU. No matter who is president, you have the right and the moral obligation to act on your conscience. But by the same token, don't expect to be able to cry "help, help, I'm bein' oppressed!" when you don't get 100% of your agenda adopted.

My own agenda is much like those of Dean and Kucinich. But do you really think that any president can just wave his hand and decree Utopia complete with stately pleasure domes? Review "How A Bill Becomes A Law". Gradualism isn't some excuse for inaction, it's an acceptance of the sad fact that revolutions kill lots of people and destroy lots of stuff. "Baby steps" and necrosis? Florid metaphors but bad history. Change will happen on its own schedule, and all the ranting in the world won't speed it up. Look at how the neo-Con movement took over the country completely between its inception in 1965 and the electoral farce of 2000. All those necrotic baby steps add up.

Patience doesn't mean passivity. It means living your whole life as a political member of one's community and knowing that no one action will be lost. Our political problems come from people wanting our leaders to do it all for us, and getting it done by yesterday. It's time we de-throned them and did the leading ourselves. Ask any politician with even a speck of idealism left, and s/he'll tell you that it's still a cherished vision.

Change -- progressive change will happen, and I think someone like John Kerry will be pleased to find himself having to catch up with the crowd -- and endorse a Dean or a Kucinich for president in 2008 or 2012, as the case may be.

--bkl