Letters to the Editor
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Liberal Terms
If I was black, and didn't find the Harvard fast track, I'd take Wright's position. Just like if I was born Palestinian I'd probably be dead by now with the smile on my face that eluded me in life. But I'm a liberal.
Gary is right to exorcise the demon of excessive patriotism in a land that does so little to care for its own as this one. But how many look at the world from any perspective but their own--outside the box of their color, sex, or class--which is so defining it is rarely revealed? (We used to proudly call those with the capacity to do so "liberals," but now we don't know what to call them.)
It'd be more powerful to frame the discussion in terms of how consensus is made and changed--how the thoughts, ideals, and asperations of the few and the great slowly change society. And he almost gets there, but instead he gets caught in a polemic that makes him sound defensive and victimized.
When Clinton said McCain and his wife loved America, I don't think he was dissing Obama in particular, but it's politics, and he does have that option. Play fair Gary.
What he's inadvertently acknowledging is that the juggernaut has been brought to his knees. The source is deadly in a nation willing to fund the largest army on the planet for the last sixty years. They're going to chop him to bloody bits if he gets to the GE and it's a shame to see. The argument that he is the most electible has been dealt a deadly possibly mortal blow.
Is there still time for him to win the nomination and have the chips fall where they may? What is the responsible course of action in order to wrest the nation from the scourge of right wing domination?
That's the question for those emotionally committed--what kind of leaders are they? It doesn't just apply to the rich, famous, and elected. How do they want to influence the mob whose answer to every conflict is bomb, bomb, bomb?
I'll fight anybody who tries to rub it in. This is when consolidation among liberals begins--not those who don't understand what the term means, or laugh at us. It can't be taken personally. Too much is at stake.
The job is to not let the consensus who gave the nation George W. Bush rule America any more. If you don't know that, it's time to learn.