I enjoyed reading the responses to my earlier diary entry, "I am the proud owner of a Confederate Flag" (Sat Nov 15th, 2003 at 19:45:31), both positive and negative. When I wrote the piece, I was trying to make the point that the Confederate Flag is not just a symbol of hatred, violence, and bigotry, it also represents, for some people, a regional identity and regional pride.
(In that diary entry I describe receiving a Confederate Flag as one of the "gag" gifts given to me by co-workers at the end of my two year stay in South Carolina. I was touched by the gift; that my co-workers would give this to me; an outspoken progressive activist heavily involved in left-wing politics, not to mention being a Jew, Northerner, and from the Big City.)
After reading through the responses, especially the negative ones, it occurs to me that there is a bigger point to be made.
I see a lot of angry posts in this blog. The blogger seems to be saying "I'm right and you're wrong," and then belittles or attempts to marginalize the other person.
We are not each other's enemies here. You don't win the argument by defeating the other guy.
I think that is what Dean is trying to say when he talks about being the candidate of the guys in pickups with Confederate Flag decals. For too long the talk out of the Democratic Party has been to demean these people. It is not enough to just say that they, as members of the working class, are also being screwed over by the Republicans; to bring these people over to our side of the aisle we must accept them for who they are and invite them in as full members of the coalition. That means giving them the keys to the house and letting them piss in the corners so they can be satisfied that this is their movement, too. (sorry about the mixed metaphor.)
So let me be clear on who the enemy is. The enemy is the folks laying roadside bombs to blow up and kill our guys.
If you disagree, if you think the ambushers are "Iraqi freedom fighters" striking a blow for national self-determination, or somehow allies in the effort to poke our President in the eye with a stick, then I don't want you as part of my coalition.
My interest in the presidential campaign is to help build the coalition that will elect the guy who champions our values. That means finding common cause with people who may be on the other side of the cultural war divide.