My latest rant

[detroit]

What GOPers don't get:

Kerry supporters are NOT a bunch of "America haters" who want to "bring the U.S. down" or "destroy Christianity."

By and large, Kerry supporters are decent, honest people who respect Sen. Kerry and who want America to be a better, stronger, more prosperous place. Kerry supporters also have honest concerns about waking up to a country they don't recognize anymore. And Kerry supporters believe that a fresh start now is the best way to preserve American values and to restore the respect in the world that was vital to our prosperity and security from 1776 till about three years ago.

Kerry supporters also know that facing the truth about Iraq is not "disloyal," it is merely facing facts. And they want a president who is not so invested in the status quo as to make any new approach very unlikely.

Given all that, we really resent being looked at with suspicion by the president and his supporters, being referred to as the "enemy within" by idiot radio talk show hosts and having a "cultural war" declared against us by the GOP.

Got it?

[XanaDUer]

1. Here is an overly simplistic view of the two contrary

political philosophies I heard once:

A liberal would rather have 9 guilty people go free than have 1 innocent person go to jail.

A conservative would rather have 9 innocent people go to jail rather than have 1 guilty person go free.

Newt Gingrich said go negative early, and his little republican pals have been doing so with great success for quite a while.

[deadparrot]

2. Al Franken put it best

when he said something along the lines of:

Republicans love America like a four year old loves her mommy. Whatever mommy does is perfect; she can do no wrong. Liberals love America like grownups, we take the good with the bad, we see when our country is going downhill, and we help bring about change because we care.

IMHO, it was one of the most powerful passages in the book.

[TahitiNut]

3. What we don't get: THEY think THEY are 'America' and we aren't!

They see the reflection of their hate, their atrophied souls, and their moral bankruptcy in the mirror of their own eyeballs and blame others for their abysmal failings as human beings.

There's depravity in America, a cancer of our body politic - ethical "living dead" who've sold their own souls and stew in the bile of envy of the living with a depth of covetousness that knows no bounds. They're afraid to love - settling for the corrupt substitute called wantonness.

[Bluerthanblue]

4. Kerry said in 1971.....

...." I don't see another system other than democracy, but democracy has to remain responsive. When it does not, you create the possibilities for all kinds of other systems to supplant it, and that very possibility, I think, is beginning to exist in this country.

Mr. KERRy. Well, my feeling is that if you are talking about the ideal structure of this country as it is written down in the Constitution, then you or I would not differ at all. Yes, that is an ideal structure.

What has developed in this country, however, at this point is something quite different and that does require some fundamental changes.

I do agree with you that what happened in Vietnam was not the product of evil men seeking evil goals. It was misguided principles and judgments and other things.

However, at some point you have to stop playing the game. At some point you have to say, "All right we did make a mistake." At some point the basic human values have to come back into this system and at this moment we are so built up within it by these outside structures, other interests, for instance, government by vested power which, in fact, you and I really know it is. When a minority body comes down here to Washington with a bill, those bodies which have the funds and the ability to lobby are those which generally get it passed. If you wanted to pass a health care medical bill, which we have finally perhaps gotten to this year, we may, but in past years the AMA has been able to come down here and squash them. The American Legion has successfully prevented people like Vietnam Veterans against the War from getting their programs through the Veterans' Administration. Those bodies in existence have tremendous power.

There is one other body that has tremendous power in this country, which is a favorite topic of Vice President Agnew and I would take some agreement with him. That would be the fourth estate. The press. I think the very reason that we veterans are here today is the result partially of our inability to get our story out through the legitimate channels.

That is to say, for instance, I held a press conference here in Washington, D.C., some weeks ago with General Shoup, with General Hester, with the mother of a prisoner of war, the wife of a man who was killed, the mother of a soldier who was killed, and with a bilateral amputee, all representing the so-called silent majority, the silent so-called majority which the President used to perpetuate the war, and because it was a press conference and an antiwar conference and people simply exposing ideas we had no electronic media there.
......" from his testamony before Congress--

and this was in his 'irrisponsible youthful days'
He IS a man of great character and conviction-

[fugue]

5. My biggest concern is the loss of compassion in our culture

If you look at the early nineteenth century, the poor were looked at as unfortunate. Over the course of that century we developed the notion of the "deserving poor" (as opposed to their "undeserving" counterparts). Over the course of the twentieth century, we've lost even that. Everyone--no matter what injuries they've suffered--is supposed to "take responsibility" and fix their own lives. For some reason, "getting Jesus" is supposed to be crucial to this process.

John Kerry seems willing to spend time on serving the needs of people other than wealthy, white, straight, male Christians like himself. I think he will work to make compassion a real--rather than a Hallmark--virtue again. That's why I'm voting for him.

I only want to "bring down America" or "Christianity" if they insist on continuing their rapacious ways.