Since Barack Obama is now a bigot for inviting pastor Rick Warren to take part in his inauguration, I thought that we should have a little purity test here on Daily Kos. After all, we wouldn't want someone who supports someone who espouses anti-progressive ideas to be allowed into our bastion of liberal purity, would we?
So I ask all of you to ask yourself a few questions. The first question: can you support someone whose values conflict with your own? Can someone be considered a true progressive if he or she "compromises" his or her beliefs by associating with someone who holds different values? If you answered no, then read on.
By your own standards, if you have supported any of the following people, you should get the fuck away from Daily Kos. We don't want your kind here.
Hey Pennsylvanians, did you vote for Senator Bob Casey? Did you know that he supports overturning Roe v. Wade and removing the right to chose what women do with their bodies? How could you look a woman in the face and tell her that you gave your vote to someone who thinks that she shouldn't be able to make decisions about her own body? Forget Casey's progressive stance on labor; his anti-choice beliefs render him unfit for office and anyone who supports him is obviously a feminist. So if you voted for Bob Casey, get the fuck outta here, you sexist pig!
Hey Wisconsinites, how many of you have voted for Russ Feingold? Did you know that his record on gun control isn't very progressive? In 2004, he voted against extending a federal ban on semi-automatic weapons. He also supported the majority Supreme Court opinion that struck down the D.C. handgun ban. How can a man who so brazenly ignores the threat of guns in our cities be allowed to call himself a Democrat? How could you vote for someone with these positions, knowing that thousands of parents have lost children to gun violence? Don't tell me about Feingold's opposition to the Iraq War and the Patriot Act; none of this matters because he doesn't completely fit the mold of a progressive. So if you voted for Russ Feingold, get the fuck outta here, you NRA wingnut!
Hey all you Kossacks who voted for Howard Dean in the 2004 primary! Did you know that he supports the death penalty in some circumstances? That's right, rather than life in prison, Howard Dean calls for the execution of convicts who killed children or police officers or committed other heinous crimes. Progressives have been fighting the death penalty for too long to have an executioner in our party leadership! Who cares about his successful 50 State Strategy that gained Democrats majorities in both houses of Congress; Dean has no respect for human life. So if you supported Howard Dean in the 2004 Presidential Primaries, get the fuck outta here, you anti-human rights asshole!
I could go on like this for hours; every Democratic politician has done something or associated with someone that doesn't repressive liberal progressivism. Many of our beloved progressive heroes have voted with the evil Republicans on important issues! Yet I don't see much outrage over the fact that there are anti-choice Democrats, pro-gun Democrats, anti-affirmative action Democrats, pro-death penalty Democrats, anti-immigration Democrats, etc. In fact, I am willing to bet that many of you fall into one of these categories.
So if you're one of the people shouting the word "BIGOT!" at Barack Obama over his choice of Rick Warren to say a prayer at the inauguration ceremony, I hope you're not hypocritically ignoring your own association with politicians who aren't in lockstep with the mainstream progressive opinion. If you want to be involved in politics, you're going to have to get used to having people around you whom you vehemently disagree with. You're going to have to get used to your leaders doing things that you don't agree with sometimes. Barack Obama doesn't agree with Rick Warren on LGBT rights, but he's not reaching out to Warren in order to change the man's mind on these issues. He's probably trying to bring a group of evangelicals to the table who could be willing to support economic progressivism even if they don't support social progressivism.
Inequality for LBGT couples is wrong. Proposition 8 was wrong. Maybe Barack Obama offended you by inviting Rick Warren to his inauguration, but that doesn't make him a bigot any more than your support for Bob Casey makes you a sexist or your support for Russ Feingold makes you pro-NRA. Disagreement has and will always exist in politics, and if you can't stand the heat, then perhaps you should get out of the kitchen.