A matter of tactics, not of either giving up or fighting unwinnable fights

[Stinky The Clown]

The Roberts nomination has brought out a fire storm of internal debate. The two sides are, in very broad terms:

Shirts: Let him go and stick to the larger battle where we can be effective with our clearly limited resources.

Skins: Fight him tooth and nail and keep on fighting everything else at the same time. We can't win unless we fight.

There is very real truth and a good deal of wisdom in each of these positions. Neither one is the right answer ..... and neither one is the wrong answer. They're simply different.

I am personally in only one of these camps. I'm probably safe in assuming that everyone who reads this has already decided for themselves where they are, too. I am also beyond 'safe', and all the way to certain, that everyone who reads this is on the same side, wants the same things, and is a true blue loyalist to the cause (if not to the party).

While I'm perhaps not the sharpest tack in the jar, I'm also capable of seeing the merits in each side's posit. The fight everything crowd and the fight tactically crowd.

What pisses me off even more than the repugs is the dismissive tone each side takes in this INTERNAL debate. Did I say 'dismissive'? I'm sorry. I meant 'venomous' .... or maybe even 'hateful' ..... surely 'derisive' is an apt word.

And that simply isn't helpful. Can anyone on either side of this debate say with any intellectual honesty that those on the other side of this debate don't also want to win? You may see disagrement, but that is about tactics, not the goal.

I suspect we'll not resolve this internal debate any time soon. But I would certainly like to think we can at LEAST have some respect for one another. I am getting pretty down at what I've seen and read here since 9.10 PM last night. I am seeing clear examples of absoluteism. The same sort of absolutism we decry in the Repubs. The 'my way or the highway' crowd.

Stop that. It isn't one damn bit helpful.

And at the end of the day, the final skirmish in this particular fight (Roberts) will be fought in the Senate. I don't have a vote there. I suspect no one else here does, either.

This particular post of mine is not in any way to push for one of the two positions.

It is simply to call for some RESPECT for different opinions.

It is simply to call for RESPECTFUL debates.

It is simply to call for some RESPECT for others.

If you want to know my views on the tactics, see my other posts. They're pretty clear.

[hippiechick]

1. Excellent post !

:applause:

[Hamlette]

2. agreed, excellent post, much worth remembering n/t

[babylonsister]

3. Well said and nominated! nt

[Booster]

4. Very good post - and you're right; cooler heads are needed now.

We seem to be in a spot where we have a lot of us looking at the very near future and others looking at the future for the next 30 years, and both are important, but we need to stop putting each other down simply because of our choice of priorities. Like another poster said "take a deep breath" - let's do that and then come back again and fight for both futures, near and far away.

[Stinky The Clown]

5. I suspect that in the coming days (and maybe weeks) there will be a

coming together, of sorts, as to a strategy. I suspect the 'let it go' crowd will harden a bit on Roberts and the 'fight to the death' crowd will be more measured in their response as well.

Right now, we're all acting as much from knee-jerk as from well thought out consideration of the options. A part of the issue is the huge unknowns about Roberts himself. Were he an out and out wacko, this internal debate would likley not be happening.