sigrun has called my attention to a Howard Dean kerfuffle.My immediate reaction, of course, is "Divisiveness does not accomplish anything productive." I mean, i hate people, but i also know that the only way to make change happen is to enable the opposition to see you as an intelligent and caring human being they're willing to work with.
Yes, let's call the Republican Party a monolithic party. 'Cause there are totally not social liberals/fiscal conservatives and social conservatives/fiscal liberals both in the same party, and everyone adheres to a single platform. Yes of course. There is no debate within the Republican party about same-sex marriage or stem-cell research or even the war in Iraq or abortion. No of course not.
hernewshoes says "It sounds like Dean is taking a lot of his personal judgements of Shrub [...] and projecting them onto the people who voted for Shrub, and that's just....stupid."That's a good articulation of the issues i was having with the broad brushstrokes and couldn't manage to articulate.
Dean admits that the Dems are predominantly white Christians, same as the Republicans, but his caveat is, "We're more welcoming to different folks." If the issue is the diversity of the party, why make a stupid statement about their monolithicness that can apply just as well to your own party?
hernewshoes also points out, "If you elect Screamin' Dean as the leader of your party and then flinch when he says whack things in public, I have no sympathy for you. You wanted someone colorful who would draw a lot of publicity, you got it."I definitely remember WTF-ing when i heard he was elected DNC chair. (Though to be truly fair, one would have to make sure that all those distancing themselves from him did not in fact vote for him, as DNC chair can't be a unanimous thing.)
