11/10/2004 Entry: ""
Posted by Maynard @ 04:21 PM MST
So Much For Getting Along
"Progressives have only one course of action now: React quickly to every outrage - red state types love to cheat and intimidate, so we have to assume the worst and call them on it every time." - Jane Smiley, The unteachable ignorance of the red states
"But while it's O.K. to think things over, those who abhor the direction Mr. Bush is taking the country must maintain their intensity; they must not succumb to defeatism." - Paul Krugman, No Surrender
Some open ended questions for the left:
- Did it occur to any of you that the values voter makes their pick based on more than just values?
- Did it occur to any of you that the values voter might not have enough spare cash to pay for an accountant - and as a result can see the results of Bush's tax cuts firsthand?
- Did it occur to any of you that the tax cuts might have benefitted the values voter, even a little?
- Did it occur to any of you that the values voter considers fortitude and endurance when facing an enemy to be values worth voting for?
- Did it occur to any of you that opposing Bush will not endear you to the values voter?
- Do you really expect to win if you "maintain [your] intensity"? If you "assume the worst"?
If this attitude persists throughout 2005, expect a Democrat slaughter at the voting booth in 2006.
There was talk in October over the New York Times Magazine article by Ron Suskind about President Bush's faith. In it a phrase was coined - "reality-based community". It refers to being a member of the group with the mindset that the observed and interpreted is more real than the believed but unseen. In short, it is the opposite of the "faith-based community". It is intended to distinguish between atheistic intellectuals and those who have religious beliefs. But the way the phrase comes out becomes an insult - as if to say that those with faith are not grounded in reality. It is the embracing of phrases like that which repulse the values voter from those who use them. Would the left be encouraged to join the values voters if they used phrases like "faithless commie-unity"? Of course not. It degrades unity, which is something we need more of. The only way to get it is to have more humility and civility as a nation.
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