In fact, his real name is Ruben Warrenstein.
When Barack Obama was elected President, I had high hopes for his administration. But while he is on vacation in Hawaii, he has failed to both give America marriage equality, and solve the crisis in the Middle East. In short, he is already the worst Democratic president since Bill Clinton.
In one corner, we have the gays. The rest of us envy their taste in fashion, their propensity toward fitness, and their knowledge of show tunes. Sure, they're one of the last groups who can be verbally shit on in many social circles without a hint of disapproval, and they can't get married to one another. But they also have Wanda Sykes, Ted Allen, and Neil Patrick Harris. They have a voice, and when it comes to using that voice against the loathsome Rick Warren, there is only one place to speak--in a dKos diary.
In another corner, we have the straights. The more enlightened among us are currently falling over ourselves to demonstrate how down we are with the gay struggle. We'll tell you how we've given money to HRC, how many gay friends we have, how upset we are about Proposition 8, and how angry we are over Rick Warren giving the invocation at Obama's inauguration. We do this in the only manner we know how--through dKos diaries.
Now in the midst of all this gay, straight, Rick Warren imbroglio, Israel and Gaza are in flames again. So, in turn, we are in flames. If there's one issue where progressives are almost evenly divided, it's I/P. It's easy to hate Republicans, wingnuts, etc. It's easy to discuss freedom of choice, economic security, and the war in Iraq. We all agree. But on I/P, we not only get the fatigue we were experiencing with the abundance of Rick Warren diaries, we also have the passionate supporters of Israel, the passionate supporters of the Palestinians, those who blame Israel, those who blame Hamas, those who blame both, those who blame either, and those like me, who blame Brett Favre for turning in a truly shitheaded performance yesterday, denying the 11-5 Patriots a return to the playoffs.
On top of that we get people who hate Arabs, but couch it in terms of opposition to the Palestinian leaders. We got others who hate Jews, but swear it's just criticism of Israel. We have kneejerk accusers of bigotry, and those who are desperate to portray themselves as victims of such kneejerkery.
What's the point of this diary? The point is, we're not going to agree on this shit. So let's accept it for what it is--a robust, occasionally heated, usually passionate debate. It's one of the few internecine battles you see here, because we don't have a Bush, a McConnell, or a Boehner to rally against. I won't like all the participants, and I'll loathe some of what they say. I'll even get sick of it after a while. But I'll like that we're having the discussion in the first place. Where else on the tubes do you see it go down like it does here?