Letters to the Editor
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backwards
whether read oldest to newest, newest to oldest, its been healthyskeptic saying the same thing over an over for 16 pages. In between, his direct insult of the general group and Dirks in specific indicates his ignorance of the quality of discussion here. At least, before he got here.
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re: Why?
"any ammo we give the right will lose moderates."
Why? Honest question.
Robert, is it not obvious?
There is a war for the "hearts and minds" of the normal working Americans who are not into politics as you are. They often make up their mind late in an election cycle. They infuriate political strategists in both parties. Anything you do to help your opponent win these people hurts your side.
I personally think it is better to lose than sell out principles, but he is just telling you old time political wisdom.
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You must live in a Left Coast social bubble
Compromise is bullshit though, if you don't put up a healthy fight first.
You don't seem to realize how totally backwards that is.
You don't approach politics by pitting one hardliner kooky side against the other.That's not what he advocated doing. He's advocating strong effort to advance a reasonable democratic agenda, in the face of strong, and deceptive Republican connivance against such efforts. You are bullshitting -- putting words in the mouths of other posters because you can't defend yours on their merits.
Politics are the art of compromise. One "wins" in politics by putting forth the most appealing and reasonable sounding proposal, balancing idealism with pragmatism, and then passing it. And then, if all goes well and as promised, taking the next step. -- healthyskeptic
This is the most inane idealization of politics I've ever seen in print. Even the town council meetings I used to attend in idyllic Chagrin Falls, Ohio were rougher than what you're describing. It would be lovely -- but I've never seen this smooth, beauteous sort of politics at any level in our society.
I don't know where you're writing from, but it sounds like you're deep in the heart of Leftcoastia. Heads up: Portland is not the entire U.S. of A. In most of this nation nihilistic self-indulgent lefties are conspicuously absent from society, and from the political dialog. Here in suburban Louisiana it is radical to support a tax increase to fund the libraries (in a district that's experiencing +30% per annum population growth since Katrina, where the property tax rate is half what I paid in Ohio.) That is the sort of society I'm up against -- one where the slightest hint of interest in the general public welfare gets you written off as hopelessly "librul".Your arguments might seem sound -- if they applied to the sociopolitical dynamics I've observed in flyover country (Nevada, Ohio and Louisiana) over the past 15 years. They don't. Out here, politics is a contact sport and one that gives no quarters to sissies.
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About to explode.
Why did the Republicans gain so much power int he 80's and 90's to begin with? Democrats failed to disassociate themselves with the counter-culture movement and lost a lot of moderate "values voter" Americans.
Not so fast. Nixon took over in an election where the really down the fringe candidate, and a big winner, was murdered, and the centrist candidate, the Democratic Machine Guy, became the Democratic choice. He won again in an election in which he engineered that the Democrats' best and most outspoken candidate withdrew from the race (Edwin Muskie) and in which, totally contrary to the 2000 election, the press was all over the Democratic VP candidate's health history.
Reagan won after Carter got hit broadside at the convention by an intransigent Ted Kennedy, and then got his votes split by John Anderson.
Beginning with Reagan, and Mark Fowler, we changed our mental history to fit a news media that gave up reporting and went into corporate king making for a living.
Personally, I believe:
* Torture is wrong, any time, any where, any one, any ticking whatever.
* The corporations have been working on the takeover of this country since circa 1876 and it was only a matter of time until they made their power play.
* Being a democracy, every citizen of this country represents us as a public face when abroad, military or civilian, and has an obligation to the rest of us to be the American that earns respect.
* The Vietnam war was wrong, the Iraq war is wrong. They will still be wrong even if 53 of the 50 states vote for them.
* There are two types of large organisms on this planet for a reason, until there are two types of machines, there will be no balance in the atmosphere.
* There are 6 billion people in the world, 2 billion have no access to clean drinking water, 1 billion has no reliable access to drinking water at all. Without a lot of very radical thinking, much of the world will soon starve to death or kill each other trying not to.
* Everyone in this world is entitled to hear the reason for their detention, and have it judged valid by a duly constituted judiciary -- even bin Laden, even the most despicable possible person.
* A nation's respect for civil rights is judged by how it treats the worst of its citizens.
* The Holy Land is not my holy land, it's time to attend to the other 6 billion people on the planet.
* The word terrorist is undefinable.
I also believe, having done negotiations internationally, that politics is most decidedly not about compromise, it's about consensus. The solution to disagreements frequently comes from a new idea, not the convex sum of the old ones.
Can I be placed in the liberal fringe now? I'm not sure I can stand centrism anymore.
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hello?
He didn't just "sell albums to hippies".
I never said he just sold albums to hippies. Learn to read.
He sold good music, and some people agreed with his plitcs more or less. It doesn't mean he, or his politcs, could run for office.
Only an insignificant percentage of America's 300+ million population ever owned a Johnny Cash album, so you're not doing much towards any point.
The percentage of the public represented by hippies and other fringe elements of the left were 5-10% of the population at it's peak. But that was enough to do enormous harm to the left because they were so prominent.
Similarly, the religious wackos and neocons and other fringe of the right only represent about 10% of Americans, but they're also enough to do enormous harm because they're so prominent.
If you look at the middle, it is gradually liberalizing and moving left at a fairly steady pace, and tends to be repelled by extremes, reacting hostilely to upheaval. If one wants to see the country move forward at the optimal pace, let the rt wingnuts piss the middle off and push them left, and don't let the left fringe do the same.