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Edited on Tue Dec-12-06 11:00 PM by Perky
Those who so eagerly vilify the republicans for wanting to turn back the clock to the 1950s conservatism that never really existed; while at the same time clinging stubbornly to their own 1960s liberalism mythology. Don’t we need is 21st Century solutions to 21st Century problems?
Those who would decry the intolerance of dissent in the present administration and yet in the next breadth would seek to purge any moderate and DLC voices from the party they self-importantly claim to own. Are we not the big tent? . Those who would accuse religionists on the right of attempting to create a theocracy that is at once intolerant of others, angry, militant and mean-spirited while at the same time militantly craving an atheocracy in which the public square is devoid of religious political content or religious pluralism, and is hostile to any religious expression informing public debate. Is the answer to the religious right really pushing people of faith to the back of the bus?
The point is this: there is nothing wrong with liberalism so long as it proponents are willing to progress beyond the corner of Haight Street and Ashbury, the West bank of the Charles River or Selma
The point is this: the Democratic Party has always been one that has had within its core Dixiecrats and Rust Belt Catholics, and we have never had a truly liberal president. The idea that we can purge or push moderates from our midst and field winning presidential candidate is absurd. Parties win the White House only when the other party seems too scary to muddled middle. Yes most Americans are liberal on social policy issues; the problem is that they are scared to death of liberal solutions to those problems. You may curse moderates all you want, but moderates have been pivotal in electing every president sense Truman. We purge those voices at our peril.
The point is this: that however detestable we all find the religious right on political grounds, be assured that there are many more who reject them on religious grounds. If we mock and belittle people of faith because they believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster, if we tell them there is no place for them in our party or that they are morons we only serve to ratify and bring credence to the GOP mantra that we are hostile to the beliefs of many, many millions of people of faith.
The point is that it is fine to ardently believe in liberal ideology, but intolerance is intellectually lazy, juvenile and hypocritical. Some of you would rather pick a fight, pick up a protest sign, purge the infidels, or joust at windmills than actually govern.
Folks, it is as much about listening as it is about yelling at the top of lungs. When we become intolerant of other views, when we fall in love with out own voice, we fail to live up to democratic or American values. When we reject the big tent we become Democrats in Name Only.
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