I have a friend who has views I abhor. Must I reject and denounce him?

[TheZug]

He's a good friend. I've known him for 20 years. We have many common interests.

But he's also basically a neocon. He fully supports virtually all of Chimpy's policies, from the Iraq War to tax cuts to the environment. There are very few things we agree on politically.

Still, I respect him a great deal personally. He conducts himself in an honest and forthright manner. He's done me many a favor over the years. I'm glad to count him as a friend, and frankly I would trust him more than I would many others I know.

Must I reject and denounce him? Can I not associate with him? Or is it somehow okay, because I'm a "civilian"? Would I have to cut ties with him if I were ever to run for office?


(Just in case no one gets it, yes, this does have to do with the Wright controversy).

[donheld]

1. I have a family who have views I abhor. Must I reject and denounce them?

[Seen the light]

2. If that "friend" started to actively sabotage your campaign if you ran...

then yes, you would have to reject and denounce him.

[atreides1]

10. I Understand Now

As long as Hagee and Parsley don't sabotage McCain's campaign, then it's okay for McCain to accept their endorsements!

Thank you.

[ellacott]

3. Sadly it could come to that

I have many friends that would get me in trouble politically.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

4. He must reject and denounce you for felonious silliness.

[Dhalgren]

5. I denounce you for having neocon "friends"!

:evilgrin:

[TheZug]

9. Email me the Book of Liberal Orthodoxy, O Teacher, so that I may learn.

[Dhalgren]

39. I'm not a "liberal", I'm a Socialist, so you probably wouldn't

be friends with me anyway; people who maintain friendships with neocons don't usually have socialist friends. Acquaintances, perhaps, but not "friends". I consider neocons to be fascists, the same way that Nazis are fascists, so I won't be "friends with them. Also, I have cut off family members because of their support for the fascist neocons. The neocons murder innocent civilians - women, men, children and the elderly, the ill, the disabled - without compunction, without remorse, without human feelings. They are, right now, planning the murders of tens of thousands of innocent Iranians and we sit here debating whether it is OK to have one of these cretins as a "friend"?

Fascists of any stripe are all the enemies of my blood. "Can't we all just get along?" Hell. No.

[DJ13]

If your friend threatens to damage your career, wouldnt you?

Next stupid question.......

[TheZug]

16. Missing the point--I understand what Obama is doing now . . .

. . . what I'm asking is, before Wright went off on his lunatic tour, why it mattered in the first place. Unless your preacher advocates genocide, who cares what he or she says? I went to Catholic church for 18 years, and left because I really don't believe and hated sitting in church. I never considered that what my priest said was somehow a reflection on me.

[bobbert]

6. If he went to the media and stated his views since you are his friend you feel the same way

I think you would have to denounce him and his statements.

[MNDemNY]

7. If you run for POTUS and expect a chance. then Yes.

[TheZug]

11. Why? Because we've become such cowards in the face of the scaaaarrrry wingnuts?

[scheming daemons]

12. So Hillary should denounce every friend of hers who she disagrees with?

What kind of nonsense is THAT?

[MNDemNY]

14. Only the ones she has had name her books,

oh and the ones who baptized her child, and the ones who were "spiritual adviser of twenty years"(Obama's words, despite his denial today) And the ones who "brought her to christianity.

[TheZug]

18. Can we use quotes from Jefferson and Shakespeare for our book titles?

Because the former kept slaves, and the latter wrote some rather anti-Semitic plays.

Since we're being so absolutist.

[MNDemNY]

19. Sure, what ever floats your boat!

[Clintonista2]

22. Hillary isn't friends with shakespeare

[slick8790]

8. Absolutely.

We must only have friends who are exactly the same as us.

[islandmkl]

13. does your friend, by his/her actions alone, threaten your every goal?...

at what point is your friend's friendship definable by the maintenance of the bond between you as opposed to the give-and-take and 'give the love, do no harm' nature of a true friendship bond?

[joeybee12]

15. Well, you certainly wouldn't want to write a book and praise his views in it..

...and then have to eat those words.

[crankychatter]

17. I hope Wright swears him in and Samantha Powers becomes Sec. of State

I have great uncles that were buried with their sheets on
and wouldn't deny anyone the right to work, live, vote, go to the church of their choice...

they were just knuckledragging racists and die hard segregationists... a small drawback

They were kind to my multi-ethnic Family

I would entrust my daughter (who looks like a female version of Barack) in their care with complete confidence that she would be treated with love and respect

Family is everything... that's what I think

Who else is going to be on your side when it's "us and them"

with education and time... exposure... folks can change

[sandnsea]

20. Hell the PRESIDENT has views I abhor

This is such fucking bullshit. This country is surely lost.

[pingzing58]

21. Yes if you are a public servant running for political office where you represent all of the people.

[TheZug]

25. You're joking, right?

[4_Legs_Good]

23. You must reject, denounce, and REPUDIATE him!

That was answer (d) ALL OF THE ABOVE

You should know that by now. Hit the books again.

DAvid

[housewolf]

24. I don;t know... is he out in public, on national tv and cable

doing harm to you? Are his words and picture being cycled over and over again on the media influencing what the public thinks and believes about you?

Are you a public person running for public office and trying to win the trust of voters? Would those whose votes you are courting think more of you for standing up for your own beliefs and defending yourself or for remaining silent in the face of an agressive attack from someone who you thought of as a friend? If that person damaged you publiclly, how would remaining silent and simply not associating with that person serve you? How does it serve your public image to allow someone to damage you politically and remain silent about it, creating the inevitable impression among the public that you are weak and won't stand up for yourself?

[GoesTo11]

26. It's a virtue to be able to get a long with people.

If it's private, no need to say anything. Why make trouble.

If he made his views public and people connected those views to you, it would be appropriate to reject those views, but not the person.

If he expressed abhorrent views, not just ones you happen to disagree with, then it might be time to denounce him. For example, if you found out your friend was a KKK leader, that would be a reason to denounce him and stop being his friend at all.

I think that these distinctions are important - don't reject people unless you have to, disagree - or even reject ideas without rejecting people. This is part of civil behavior and it would make this country better if more people had this ability. Hey, easy for me to say, I've got a bunch of far right friends. When politics and faith come up, it's like we have gone to a different dimension. But we're still good friends and I respect them for who they are. I recognize Obama taking this approach, and good for him.

Being able to get along doesn't mean allowing yourself to be taken advantage of, and now Obama is within his right to start rejecting the man.

[graycem]

27. It is rather ironic that

Bush's religion helped him get elected, and Obama's threatens his. Yeah, no double standard here. American politics is disgusting. The people in this country are so hypocritical and absolutely ignorant to what really affects them. They're crying about $4 gas and foreclosures, and offended by Rev. Wright's words, yet many of those same people will vote for McCain. Meh. Maybe when they get $10 gas over the next two or three years, they'll try to educate themselves.

[fed_up_mother]

40. Bush had Rev Caldwell (black) as a sign of unity

Unfortunately, Wright was not a sign of unity.

Politics is politics, heh?

[MonkeyFunk]

28. If he gives nationally-televised speeches

saying outrageous things and you're running for President, then yes, you probably should.

Otherwise, nboody gives a shit.

[Dr Fate]

29. I dont know, are you black? Is he?

Because I've never seen the media or supposedly good Democrats use these guilt by association tactics against any white dudes before- not to this degree.

[TheZug]

30. Nah, we're both white, so I guess we're in the clear.

[Dr Fate]

35. Be glad you won the skin lotterey. n/t

n/t

[Godhumor]

31. What a silly question

A friend is a friend is a friend. If he hasn't done anything to get in the way of that then you shouldn't even be asking.

[TheZug]

33. Interesting that you should say that.

[Godhumor]

38. Has he done something to get in the way?

My point is just that it is possible to have deep and meaningful relationships with people of different ideological backgrounds whether spiritual or political in nature. Two of my best friends are religious conservatives and we deal with the issue by simply not discussing politics with each other, or we joke about it. I would never think of giving either of them up.

[Hope And Change]

32. As long as your name is not Barack Obama.

[CountAllVotes]

34. I had a friend I thought

I told her I voted for Obama and she called him a nasty racist name and I have not heard from her since. That was in February. She is a racist, no doubt about it.

GOOD RIDDANCE is what I say!

And my advice to you is much the same, GOOD RIDDANCE!

:dem:

[Hamlette]

36. no, you don't have to denounce him but you are a bad person and can never be trusted or hold office

[undeterred]

37. I couldn't be friends with a neocon.

But whatever suits you is your business.

[stillcool]

41. If your friend is ...

well connected to the uber powerful, then you have no problem. If your friend is the Pastor of a Church in Chicago you need to distance yourself immediately!

Hillary's Prayer: Hillary Clinton's Religion and Politics

Clinton's prayer group was part of the Fellowship (or "the Family"), a network of sex-segregated cells of political, business, and military leaders dedicated to "spiritual war" on behalf of Christ, many of them recruited at the Fellowship's only public event, the annual National Prayer Breakfast. (Aside from the breakfast, the group has "made a fetish of being invisible," former Republican Senator William Armstrong has said.) The Fellowship believes that the elite win power by the will of God, who uses them for his purposes. Its mission is to help the powerful understand their role in God's plan.
-------------------------------------------------------
Coe's friends include former Attorney General John Ashcroft, Reaganite Edwin Meese III, and ultraconservative Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.). Under Coe's guidance, Meese has hosted weekly prayer breakfasts for politicians, businesspeople, and diplomats, and Pitts rose from obscurity to head the House Values Action Team, an off-the-record network of religious right groups and members of Congress created by Tom DeLay. The corresponding Senate Values Action Team is guided by another Coe protégé, Brownback, who also claims to have recruited King Abdullah of Jordan into a regular study of Jesus' teachings.

The Fellowship's long-term goal is "a leadership led by God—leaders of all levels of society who direct projects as they are led by the spirit." According to the Fellowship's archives, the spirit has in the past led its members in Congress to increase U.S. support for the Duvalier regime in Haiti and the Park dictatorship in South Korea. The Fellowship's God-led men have also included General Suharto of Indonesia; Honduran general and death squad organizer Gustavo Alvarez Martinez; a Deutsche Bank official disgraced by financial ties to Hitler; and dictator Siad Barre of Somalia, plus a list of other generals and dictators. Clinton, says Schenck, has become a regular visitor to Coe's Arlington, Virginia, headquarters, a former convent where Coe provides members of Congress with sex-segregated housing and spiritual guidance.

------------------------------

These days, Clinton has graduated from the political wives' group into what may be Coe's most elite cell, the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast. Though weighted Republican, the breakfast—regularly attended by about 40 members—is a bipartisan opportunity for politicians to burnish their reputations, giving Clinton the chance to profess her faith with men such as Brownback as well as the twin terrors of Oklahoma, James Inhofe and Tom Coburn, and, until recently, former Senator George Allen (R-Va.). Democrats in the group include Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor, who told us that the separation of church and state has gone too far; Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) is also a regular.

Unlikely partnerships have become a Clinton trademark. Some are symbolic, such as her support for a ban on flag burning with Senator Bob Bennett (R-Utah) and funding for research on the dangers of video games with Brownback and Santorum. But Clinton has also joined the gop on legislation that redefines social justice issues in terms of conservative morality, such as an anti-human-trafficking law that withheld funding from groups working on the sex trade if they didn't condemn prostitution in the proper terms. With Santorum, Clinton co-sponsored the Workplace Religious Freedom Act; she didn't back off even after Republican senators such as Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter pulled their names from the bill citing concerns that the measure would protect those refusing to perform key aspects of their jobs—say, pharmacists who won't fill birth control prescriptions, or police officers who won't guard abortion clinics.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/09/hillarys-prayer-3.html

[BigDDem]

42. You can no more disown him than you could your pastor.