I have such a crush on Barack Obama, this is from his diary on dkos: (Via Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings)
The bottom line is that our job is harder than the conservatives' job. After all, it's easy to articulate a belligerent foreign policy based solely on unilateral military action, a policy that sounds tough and acts dumb; it's harder to craft a foreign policy that's tough and smart. It's easy to dismantle government safety nets; it's harder to transform those safety nets so that they work for people and can be paid for. It's easy to embrace a theological absolutism; it's harder to find the right balance between the legitimate role of faith in our lives and the demands of our civic religion. But that's our job. And I firmly believe that whenever we exaggerate or demonize, or oversimplify or overstate our case, we lose. Whenever we dumb down the political debate, we lose. A polarized electorate that is turned off of politics, and easily dismisses both parties because of the nasty, dishonest tone of the debate, works perfectly well for those who seek to chip away at the very idea of government because, in the end, a cynical electorate is a selfish electorate.
I don't agree with his characterization of the republican's position entirely. But otherwiseI think he's right, it is harder to do things well than it is to go with the extreme option. Overall it is a good post you should read all of it. It's a well deserved smack on the head to the democrats over in wingnuttia. I hope they take it seriously.
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Obama is exactly right here. And you are right that his characterization of the Republicans is a bit glib, even if there is some truth in it for some Republicans.
But i would like to bring up somethng that Obama will not tell you. And that is what it means to be a liberal Democrat.
To find out, i take you back to one of the clearest statements, pronounced by a liberal Democrat who had just wrested the presidency from a moderate Republican. i might also mention that he was the also the subject of many, many crushes. many more than Obama. Some nurse them even today!
Noting his turn at government, he set our exactly what a liberal Democratic government (for they also controlled the Congress0 should set out to do:
"With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own."
This thenm, is the liberal agenda: here on earth, God's wpork must truly be our own.
Now, in the intervening decades, liberals, for the most part, have lost faith in a transcendent deity, but they have kept goal. What used to be "God's woprk" to most liberal Democrats has been changed to, perhaps, "work that furthers a god-like moral plan."
And who now tells us what is god-like an moral? why it is the liberal Democrats thenselves. They are now their own Gods, not a single god, mind you, but a cabal of god's who smile and wink at those who think alike, and hate or pity those who do not.
In fact, like gods everywhere, these new gods, these liberal Democrats especially hate those who would place other gods before them. Indeed, they particulary hate those who still worshpip the god they are trying to replace.
For these new gods, they are oh so arrogant, so sure that they are the very measure of the right and good. But they arew young gods, and the worship of other gods sends them in paroxisms of panic and doubt, leading to reflexive anger. Rather than the calm bemusement of mature gods, these gods react with anger and vituperativeness.
And, of course, they deny in public there own view of themselves as god-like. in fact, it is even possible that they are in self-denial about it!
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