Introduction
I decided to start this blog to add my voice to the chorus of progressives, democrats, liberals and other left leaning, forward thinking Americans who are currently suffering from the crushing defeat they experienced on Tuesday, November 2. And unlike many of the right wing pundits, such as MSNBC's Joe Scarborough (see quote and link below), who are smugly declaring the death of the Democratic Party and an end to liberalism, I do not think that this is the end. A serious setback, yes, but not the end.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6414970/
Michael Moore, “The New York Times” editorial page, and other assorted leftists who awoke this week found themselves horribly out of touch with Americans. And they can keep fighting the president‘s policies all they want. In fact, I think it would be un-American for them not to voice their dissent. But, if they care to be intellectually honest while they‘re doing it, “The New York Times” editorial page and Michael Moore have to be facing this sobering fact, that when it comes to American political life, it is they who are the extremists, not George W. Bush.
And that‘s tonight‘s “Real Deal.”
OK, Joe, I'll take that challenge. I am officially speaking out in dissent. I refuse to accept that defeatist mode of thinking. 56 million people voted against George Bush, if you include the Nader vote. That's 49% of the country. Are you really so blind to think that nearly half of the citizens of this country are extremists? That's a lot of extremists. If that's the case, we're really in a lot more trouble than we know.
Instead of engaging in this sort of mean spirited dialogue, I want to challenge myself and other people in the progressive community to look at the coming four years as an opportunity to regroup, rethink and reemerge stronger and more unified. As Kerry was so fond of saying, "We are the good guys. We are the can do people." I truly believe that, otherwise I would not be a Democrat.
Over the next few days and weeks I plan to write about what I believe being a Democrat and a progressive means to me and analyze what I think we need to do next.
posted by liberalprogressive @ 4:58 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Okay, Bush has won, but look on the bright side of things. It means Hillary in 2008! I have the "Blogs for Hillary '08" on my site. Feel free to lift it.
Good luck with your blog Leftout. I hope that you find what you're looking for.
You are probably right that your party should avoid trying to mirror Republicans. If you believe that you can win on your ideas and ideals, your party should be up front about them and see if you meet with any greater success. One of your responders mentioned Hillary'08. She will clearly define the differences in philosophies between liberals and conservatives. As a moderate member of the latter group, I'm not sure how well that will work out for you, but it seems more honest than the close-to-the-vest approach that Kerry took. In the end, many Americans probably didn't see that he stood for anything unique or may have had a sense that if he did, he wasn't letting on about it.
As far as red states and blue states go, vilifying those in the red states will probably not help. Too many liberals from the beltway to Bar Harbor and from LAX to the Space Needle may be a little too sure that their self ordained views are correct and that if folks don't agree with them, then there must be something wrong with those folks. Keeping that point of view going will only serve to energize conservatives in all states, red and blue. By the way, the votes in both blue and red states were not unanimous by color.
As you seek your answers, you may find this commentary by George Will interesting.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/national/will/story/11305237p-12220082c.html
So good luck. Maybe we can keep a dialog going, if you care to. Regards
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