This diary is my first entry on dKos. I'm posting this e-mail response to a Republican friend as a diary to spark discussion. Based on some of the discussions on dKos that I've participated in and the very many where I was lurking in the shadows, I believe there are others like myself who like to fine-tune and even change their beliefs through honest debate and tiresome discussion.
For the last several years this country, and my tiny representative little piece of it, has been divided. Divided so cleanly and clearly that all of our lives just grow to become separate. My friends who are "Republican" have become more and more distant, and I end up just sitting around agreeing with all my liberal friends. I'm hoping to increase the quality of my own views by posting this e-mail message to a Republican Friend diary entry to such a wide audience.
This is my response to a simple e-mail message from a Republican friend of mine whom I respect greatly. He really is a very nice guy with a very nice family and is otherwise very pleasant to be with. Since he moved away we have been sending e-mails back and forth usually related to our respective Conservative / Liberal views with lots of frivolity and good natured ribbing.
Since my daughter and I spent this Saturday in Crawford, I came back with an increased awareness and respect for the movement Cinday Sheehan started. Yesterday, my friend sends me a simple e-mail with a link to this article:
'Peace Mom's' marriage a metaphor for Dems
This diary is my response:
This is what we mean when we say people like you have "drunk the kool-aid." This article discusses everything except why Cindy Sheehan and all the other Gold Star Families for Peace are protesting outside Crawford. The Question is: "What Noble Cause?" Can you answer that without a kool-aid-spittle-enhanced slogan? Try the truth sometime, not angry rhetoric. Here's a small bite of truth... it will probably make you gag at first, but I think you can do it. All by yourself now... just take a nibble. Freedom for Iraq? No sir. The Iraqis are going to have less freedom than even the despotic totalitarian regime of Saddam Hussein. Iraq is going to become another Islamic state which really will threaten our safety. Here's one of your own Republican pundits at The National Review:
LOSING THE WAR ON TERROR: THE VOICE OF DESPAIR ECHOES AGAIN
It'll seem bitter, but it's because of all those times you swore fealty to a man and a party rather than the truth and our country. This country is not the flag, my friend. This country is not George Bush or Dick Cheney. This country is about freedom. Real freedom, not the kind you've been spouting off about for the last few years, but real, ugly, distrubing, beautiful, tiresome, challenging, no-holds-barred freedom for everyone. Yeah, that means that we have to protect the rights of assholes like the KKK to meet and print their nasty filthy trash. It also means that I get to go to the capital and bang on drums and cheer and drown them out when the KKK comes to express their thoughts through their rights by putting on speeches in a public place. It means that I support the rights of fascist, lieing, drug-addicted, hypocrites like Rush Limbaugh to spout out the rhetoric that is given to him by the Republican party. But it doesn't mean that the police can threaten teenagers with arrest simply by the mere fact that they wanted to question their Senator about his thoughts on gays at his public appearance. In a free country we don't have to agree, but you don't get to arrest people just because you disagree. You have to put up with MY freedom just like I get to put up with yours.
It means that morons like your Republican friends in Crawford can drive by and yell "God Bless George Bush!" while my daughter and I are peacefully walking by 800 white crosses on the side of the road. That you and the people who represent your beliefs are disgusting vile bikers who sit up at the corner of the road with their american flag and "denounce" the protest just goes to show how little you all really know about what's going on. You've drunk the kool-aid. You've placed a man and a party before the truth and that leads to fascism and the loss of civil rights for everyone, including your own and even those wacked-out crazy KKK members.
Every time you respond to my messages about the current state of affairs with "God Bless George Bush" and "Freedom in on the March," it is appearent that you just aren't listening. Slogans are filler for the empty brain. Knock some of the slogans out and start responding with actual facts that have meaning to the discussion. Why do you and your Republican friends think that Cindy Sheehan's divorce, or the disagreement of her relatives have anything to do with what she started in Crawford? Can you see past the blind rhetoric of the right and push aside the slogans to see the truth of what she's doing? Here, let me help you get started with a thoughtful response:
"We went to war, and the noble cause that our 1800+ servicemen and women are dieing for is..."
That's the question the people in Crawford want answered. When I was there, there were quite a few more Gold Star Families for Peace and Cindy Sheehan wasn't even there. The movement that she started is larger than herself. Attacking Cindy Sheehan is yet another diversion from the truth. I respect you personally, and even though we do not always agree, I respect your views. Answer that one question and then we can have an actual discussion. You may find that we agree on more then you think.
Your blind rhetoric does not do you justice. Try ignoring the typical personal attacks on the messenger from the Republican Party and the slogans that make you sound crazy and delusional, not thoughtful and intelligent as I know you to be. There is much more to all of this than just that one question, but until you can agree to see the truth it's only so much talking to a brick wall. I await your honest debate.
Your friend,