I just read Establishing New Posting Standards On Daily Kosby buhdydharma
My opinion is different. I would not highlight politics but WAR and STRUGGLE
It is my opinion that movement conservatives in the US are engaged in war and progressives are involved in a struggle. In this war, they use every legal means possible to annihilate the other side. I am involved in a struggle for human rights and justice. I want them to struggle with that.
I will use Michele Bachman as an example of someone who has a well documented history of using inflammatory rhetoric. Oh yes, she is waging political warfare but in this country, she cannot call for an out and out pogrom, however close she comes. That is WAR by propaganda. By that measure, she is not lying; she is using whatever weapon she can.
I let myself get angry about the shit that she spews. I am not going to respond with anger. That is my emotion, but not my deepest feeling as a progressive. I am not waging war but she is. She will take my anger and say ''I told you that he hated me, and worse.'' Anger is not a strategy but a tactic, like terrorism. The conservative strategy is dominance and power, if they cannot get me to respond with anger, they will have to turn on each other for content. They will and do anyway. Their philosophy is hypocritical and self destructive. They are not progressives, they are going backwards. I have read the term knuckle draggers.
The problem with name calling is that when they turn on their own, I want the refugees to run to my arms. Not because I am warm and fluffy, but the cloud of words that I use is more palatable than theirs. They will not automatically heed my welcome because I did not try to destroy them. There is a problem that buhdydharmapoints out; it is how different sides use politics, one in a war and the other in a struggle.
I want them to struggle with what I say. Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert do that best. They do not moderate their emotions but use them to continually put the other side in a double bind. I don't think that they drive conservatives away, on the contrary, I have heard that many conservatives think they are talking about Liberals.
When we fight a war of words instead of undergoing a struggle to achieve justice, we are making fools of ourselves. Vent all you want but it is not a matter of civility or discourse or even politics, it is losing sight of the stuggle and fighting a never ending war, that is what struggle is. If you want the war to end, then conservative ideology has to be smothered with their own living examples of its self destruction.
I am not bad mouthing Democrats. Politics is the practical mechanism to achieve change in a democratic, modern, mass society. I want Democrats to always do better. I want them to be more transparent, to achieve progressive ideals and to find ways to 'walk the talk.' I want them to be informed by progressive ideas. Democracy along with the bill of Rights and republican structure was once the pinnacle of human achievement. It was progressive and conservatives have been trying to destroy it ever since.
Hope is the interconnectedness of humans, it is inclusive and it is apolitical. It takes courage when comrades fall, It takes honesty when confronted and it takes a humble mind that can inform your heart. Cynicism is hypocrisy and is movement conservatism in America. It's standards change with whoever has gained power, its' impossible standards are subject to change for anyone who manages to come close to achieving them. Real morality is too threatening to their quest for power.
Politics, highlighted? I will vote for Democrats, I will not support everything that they do. After the "94 presidential election, John Kerry famously said that, 'We should have been more like Republicans.'' There is no way I could have agreed with that.