A Caveat.

[richardf8]

level_head has a post worth contemplating, regardless of its slant, called UnpatrioticIt's noteworthy to my mind because it points to a way in which we, as Americans, have gotten sloppy in our thinking, especially over the past eight years, but going back farther than that even. We have become accustomed to an us and them style of thought. The right and

Comments

[orv]

I hope you're wrong.

Part of the reason we've drifted so far to the right as a nation is that Republicans always try to remain ideologically pure, and Democrats always compromise to try to make nice. This lets Republicans effectively run things even when they're not in the majority, and makes the Democrats look weak when they should be strong.

Our ideology will never prevail if we continually try to "out nice" the other party. Politics doesn't work that way.

[richardf8]

I hope I'm wrong too. I hope his goal is to shift things to the left with care. But some of his cabinet appointments suggest otherwise.

[orv]

You say that, but your post is endorsing bipartisanship and compromise -- which, after long, painful experience, I've learned actually means "Democrats doing whatever Republicans tell them to do."

[bluerain]

And gays getting thrown under the bus.

[orv]

Yeah. Because for some reason gays are always the group that's asked to sacrifice for the sake of political expediency.

This is very different from the issue richardf8 is talking about in his comment. No president could ever get elected who didn't profess support for Israel.

[richardf8]

Do take a look at Obama's section on Civil Rights on the whitehouse.gov site. I hope he does better than Clinton on this.

[richardf8]

There is a difference, and that is that Democrats are in a position of power they haven't seen 1994. I'm hoping this means Republicans being persuaded to do what the Democrats tell them to. But its not going to be the hard left feint we may hope for. He's also got more political capital than anyone since Reagan, and that too, I think will make a difference.

[orv]

Be that as it may, the gesture he made by selecting Warren is futile. The group it reaches out to is religious conservatives. They're completely unpersuadable because they believe their political beliefs are handed down from God. Any compromise with them can only be one-sided because they're not going to budge.

[bluerain]

And even if they were reachable by throwing GLBT people under the bus...under absolutely no circumstances will I accept it.

[richardf8]

Warren's audience is wider than that, though. His Purpose Driven Life is very popular in the cult of personal success once dominated by Steven Covey.

[orv]

He's a right-wing extremist with a thinly-applied moderate disguise. One of the more problematic things about Obama's picking him is it gives him more credibility with moderates. You can bet whenever he's seen stumping against gay marriage he will point out that Obama asked him to speak at his inaugeration.

[richardf8]

And this is a good point, indeed. He should not have been given that bit of ammunition.

[bluerain]

What? How dare you say that. You and your black-and white worldview, you and your demands for ideological purity.

[richardf8]

Orv made a good argument. Would you prefer I were immune to good arguments?

[bluerain]

Of course not. I would prefer that, having heard an argument that seems to have convinced you, you admitted you were wrong.

[bluerain]

So let's just have an open anti-Semite who compares Jews to pedophiles, who has a successful book, deliver the invocation!

By your logic you should be just fine with that, right? Because otherwise you'd be a massive hypocrite.