i love it here, i really do, but i am just a tiny bit tired of the way some people have a tendency to scream from the rafters that "if x says y, he's the antichrist." akin to this is the "why are x like y?" mentality used by others. i thought we were supposed to be the thoughtful ones, the side that thinks things through, the side that stands for something more than empty rhetoric.
i've been the victim of this mindset a time or two, and besides making me angry, it also scares me for the 2006 and 2008 elections. if we can't get past this circular firing squad thing and work together to find candidates who represent MOST of what we stand for as a group, then we're screwed.
it's pretty obvious from my name here that i am a southerner. in the minds of some people here, based on what i've read, that appears to be a cardinal sin. i've read diaries that include sentiments of "why are alabamians racist?" and "why is the south so full of stupid people?" pardon me for saying this, but doesn't this sound a bit like "why are all democrats pro-terrorist?"
i know most of us are angry, and we're all desperate to get rid of the jerks and liars in charge of things. but we're never going to get there if some people close up our ranks and leave a lot of people out in the cold for one or two ideological differences? there is no such thing as the perfect candidate. you're going to disagree with the nominee on something, i promise.
but to lock your minds down and extrapolate one disagreement into a conception of someone that is completely out of like is... well, it's what the wingnuts do. we're better than that here. if we don't start living up to what it means to be progressives - open-mindedness, cooperation, thoughtfulness - we'll never get anywhere. and that would be the biggest shame of all.
UPDATE:
someone pointed out that this might sound a little bit like whining, and i think i misrepresented myself. i was really aiming for a discussion of this stereotyping that we as humans seem to fall too easily into. i used the whole southern thing as the most familiar example to me (because a couple of people have bitten my head off for it). there are tons of others, i'm sure.
for instance, on sadly, no!, which if you aren't familiar is a liberal humor site, a few months ago, there was this giant brouhaha (i can't find the actual link; sorry!) because one of the guys who ran it called david horowitz of front page magazine "d-ho," like a-rod for alex rodriguez. someone flipped out, accusing the guy brad of rampant sexism, and it just spiraled out of control.
someone used the term "circular firing squad" in that discussion to describe the tendency to attack our own, and that's my main point. maybe i muddied the waters a bit; that was my fault. i hope this makes it clearer. thanks!