We are different from the conservatives.

[ProudToBeLiberal]

We do not follow people blindly. We do not base our judgement on faith but on reason. We are the party where we consider dissent to be patriotic. We are clear rational beings and we do not let fear drive us in elections. We do not let fear cloud our judgement. We are a party of balance. A balance between idealists and realists. Without one another we are NOT the democratic party. We are different from conservatives.

[jpgray]

1. Amen, great post to end the night with

Whatever our strategy is, we all want the same thing. To make our ideals into the reality of the country. It is only because Bush is so radical and so removed from where our country should be that we are so bitterly divided on HOW to destroy his legacy and replace it with one worthy of this country's citizens.

So please folks, if you can't respect the message of an idealist or a realist, at least respect the idealist or realist as a person. Empathy is a liberal trait, and we are all showing far too little of it.

[WillyBrandt]

2. I'm letting fear drive me

I'm afraid of America being ruined by the Right Wing. It's a perfectly rational, reasonable fear, and I want to confront the source of that fear, rather than live in fear in the future.

[ProudToBeLiberal]

3. How can you justify fear to be rational?

fear is an emotion.

[WillyBrandt]

7. Emotions can be rational or irrational

Fear is a perfectly rational emotion in the present circumstances. Insofar as this emotion is a motivator now, then it's perfectly appropriate.

Let me say, hope and fun and political junkeeism are also driving me. I actually like Kerry, though not as much as Clark.

[ProudToBeLiberal]

8. but emotion is a spontaneous reaction

you can reason that your fear is justified and "work it out" but you cannot deny that it's a impulsive response

[Feanorcurufinwe]

14. Saying that other people are acting out of fear doesn't cut it.

Should we tell you that you are acting out of immaturity?

These are not persuasive arguments.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

4. Actually we are not much different from conservatives

I read these boards and see the totalitarian approach one would expect from a reactionary on the right.

There is really NO commitment to the common good. It is usurped by a commitment to make everybody PAY for any unhappiness brought about to a specific ideology.

For the most part this board reminds me of a portion of a George Bernard Shaw quote:

People are a snivelling, heaping clod of ailments complaining that the world will not devote tiself to making them happy.


I am happy for people's newfound activism....I've been at it for 22 fucking years...where the fuck were they all when the states were being seduced bu corporations to put RIGHT TO WORK laws on the ballot...growing their 80's fucking hair?

[ProudToBeLiberal]

6. there is a committment to the commom good

You're just not looking farther down the orad. You're just looking at the next step. But sometimes you have to look farther down

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

10. I've been looking at the big picture for years and being bombarded

by emotional bullshit by a voting public that expects and demands instant gratification. I have been involved in labor policy in my state for 22 years.

I look around and I see people RAILING against the system...the same people who sat on their hands after Clinton was elected as though something was miraculously handled while corporations were playing ONE state against another.

I've been staring down the BIG picture tube a very long time...nobody was listening..they were out buying stuff.

Right now..it's time for REGIME change....if all the people that want their country back can focus on the picture in front of them and then make a TO DO list..it MIGHT get better..one step at a time...to TOLERATE 4 more years of the very deliberate oppression put on the most VULNERABLE members of our population due to the hoeeible agenda of Bush and HIS administration is MUTINY. Plain and simple...maybe people will have a bit of a memory after the election and perhaps live up to what THEY said they would do.

[ProudToBeLiberal]

11. hone that anger, it'll come in handy :)

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

12. It's about to kick your ass!

(meant in humor)

[Feanorcurufinwe]

13. The way you get down the road is by taking one step at a time.

[ProudToBeLiberal]

15. of course

but sometimes you'll be blind because you won't look up. You won't be able to anticipate. I need to go to sleep. Thanks for the chat

[Spider Jerusalem]

5. How different to the conservatives are "we", really?

I see a good many here whose positions and arguments are based not on reason or logic but upon emotion; many who are driven by anger, and who have allowed their emotions to cloud their judgement; many whose degree of emotional attachment to and investment in the success of a particular candidate has driven them to proclaim that, given that their preferred candidate is no longer in the hustings, they will be at best reluctant and at worst unable to vote for the eventual Democratic nominee. Yes, "we" do not march in ideological lockstep like our right-wing counterparts; but, that particular aside, "we" are no more free of the foibles and failings inherent in being a grouping of flawed, imperfect and often illogical humans than they are.

Just my observation, anyway...feel free to disagree.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

9. You mean because we actually let the voters decide?

Unlike the selection of Bush.