My Political Comment for the Day:
I am proud to be a Democrat... a liberal Democrat. A liberal Democrat in Oklahoma. I'm also a U.S. Navy Veteran. All of these things considered, it takes patience to be a liberal, Democratic veteran in the state of Oklahoma.
Fortunately, I've got a voice as the president of the Oklahoma Democratic Party's Veterans Committee, which also gives me a seat on the state party's central committee. As red as our state is, and as blue/conservative as our visible Dem officials are, I'm happy to report that the Oklahoma Democratic Party is full of a bunch of liberal, progressive, bleeding-heart idealists. They are the friends I argue with once or twice per quarter in meetings, and enjoy sparring with on a daily basis.
The OK Democratic Party's latest platform, approved last year, includes respect for patient-doctor relationships and privacy, specifically with regard to women's health issues (specifically endorsing Pro-Choice positions, the right to contraceptive coverage and use) as well as the use of medicinal products that a qualified medical professional thinks is best for their patient: Whether it's Tylenol or marijuana.
Most of the members of our state's veterans committee also support the same positions, and I think most "thinking people," on both sides of the aisle, do as well. It's easy to get into heated ideological debates, I do it almost daily- although they aren't usually worth the effort expended.
In Oklahoma, liberal and even moderate Dems, need to take a pragmatic approach. We are the state that birthed Will Rogers and Woody Guthrie. We were once proudly liberal and dark blue, but to get back to even a lighter shade of blue, we need to be pragmatic.
I both love and abhor pragmatism. It is compromise. It is supposed to be the definition of politics, not what we have now, with an incredibly obstructionist, and increasingly psychopathic, GOP.
But, we're not going to win them over. Certainly not the craziest ones (capital T party), and not even the ones who are only moderately crazy. There are still a few left with common sense, and although we don't agree on policy, we used to be able to have a conversation. That is almost gone, and pointing out the incredible lunacy in their own family isn't going to help sway them our way.
Where am I going with all of this? I don't really know, except that we can't totally abandon the pragmatic approach. A reasoned plan based on an intelligently assessed map of our options. We can win eventually, but we won't win everything at once. We will suffer many losses before we are victorious.