I have read over and over again on here how upset many of you are in various leaders for their stand on specific issues, bemoaning the drift of the Democratic Party away from your ideals and values. And I have heard it bemoaned that we aren't taking hard stands and pushing specific issues.
But I think that misses the whole point of the Democratic Party, at least the party I want. I don't want the Democratic Party to be ideologically rooted in inflexible ideals of the way government should be run, like Jesusland and AmericaCo. I want it to be pragmatically rooted, leading to the the long term goal of the betterment of all, rather than some ideological absolute.
We are not the party of isms. We are religiously neutral because we understand from studing our history the absolute surity of religion does not mix well with Religion. See the various holy wars in Europe, not to mention more than a few inquistions and Crusades.
We also understand this absolutism of ideals can have the same effect. Fascist Germany, Italy and Japan believed they were all racially superior, and so killing on a massive scale was simply a means to an end in acheiving racial purity. And we have seem the concept of Communism becomes more important that the people it is supposed to serve by watching 20 million killed in the Soviet Union, and uncounted thousands, perhaps millions, similarly in China.
A party of absolutes, of ideologues, is not my goal. I wish Harry Reid wasn't pro-life, but that is ok we agree on most issues, and he is a hell of a Senate Leader. It would have been nice for Biden to take a stand on the Bankruptcy bill, but I understand he is from Deleware, home of tax free shopping and every credit card company in America, and that he at root serves his state first.
We need to stop looking for a hero and a savior. That is what separates us from Republicans. When Bush messes up and we rightly criticise him, the Right Wing acts as if we have spoked against Jesus Christ himself. When Clinton got his blowjob, some of the most angry were from our side of the aisle. But in the end, we stood behind the leader who best served us. In the end we were pragmatic, and not ideological.
And that is what makes us Democrats. We need to stop attack each other on specific issues, and instead argue our points to convince others to follow our issues. And we need to keep and open mind to the possiblity we may be wrong.
And most importantly, we must use the power of this forum to push forward our ideas, rather than to bring down our allies. Keep in mind when you make recommendations, that the articles you push to the top are seen by literally millions of people. Any politican and political reporter worth his salt is either checking in here at least once a day, or sending an aide to do so. It has become that big.
So please don't waste your recommendations on infighting. Use this forum for ideas, and let the debate of these ideas unfold into shaping our policies. Of course we have some absolutes, but we stop being a party that can be sliced apart by single issues.
The Democratic Party is more likely to get us where you want to be long term than any other party that will reasonably win office in the next 10 years, at least. So stop making it about if Obama worded it exactly as you like it, and start making it about the big picture.