The party has not been "lost" to the religious right. DEBETOTH WHOSHU - DEmocracy BElongs TO THose WHO SHow Up. And the religous right has been showing up. If the so-called moderates cared enough about anything to get off their fat fourth points of contact, turn off the TV and actually show up at conventions, get out and do the hard work of electing people (phone banks, walking precincts) they would have more influence. Well, y'all don't. And until you do, you will not have a say. Because DEBETOTH WHOSHU. Voting doesn't matter much. Giving money matters. Showing up matters even more.
Fundamental political truth: All government is force (Washington, not my small self). Politics is about who controls the levers of power. And in our society, the most just in history, that power belongs to the activists.
How many of you gave in the last election? How many of you put in four hours a week last election? If you failed to do either, count yourself a non-(small-r) republican. You are not part of the process. Stop whining.
I've lived in tyrannies overseas, too many years. I have little patience with those who applaud fancy maneuvers like those described here - but don't have the courage and committment to get involved. Guess what - you could have ELECTED the delegates at National if your tails were in the chairs at the caucuses, AND there were enough of you.
I refuse labels like "liberal", "moderate", "wing nut" and so on. I judge people not even by the positions they take, but by the positions they will WORK for.
Dennis, Dorsano, Nicole, Robert - what have you done the last two election cycles?
Mr. Faust, you have the committment to get out there and run. Bravo for you. I exclude you from this diatribe.
One final point. I have spent most of the last four weeks speaking with the delegates in my House district, many if not most of whom would be called "wing nuts". I have renewed my trust in our system thereby. They are thoughtful, committed people who arrived at their conclusions for good reason and still listen respectfully to those with whom they disagree. They are nothing like the characterization Dennis regularly makes of them. Of the multiple hundreds I spoke with personally, one was slightly short when they learned I was not absolutely pro-choice; just one, and only slightly short, not even rude.
Re-think where you sit, and what you think of your fellow republicans. The mote in your eye might need some work before you reform the party, assuming you are willing to commit tothe hard work required.
Larry, from Minnesota.
Posted by Dennis at August 16, 2004 11:46 PMBravo, Larry.
Here's an example of DEBETOTH WHOSHU.
One of my father's friends is a major Kerry supporter - she doesn't just dislike Bush, she actively likes Kerry (she's from Mass., that's part of it of course).
But she is not simply planning to show up on 11/2 to vote for him.
She is sending out 200 letters per day(!) to voters in swing states to urge them to vote for Kerry.
She doesn't know these people, she doesn't even know whether they are Democrats, Republicans, neither, sometimes one or the other...
She is simply explaining why she believes Kerry is the better choice for the country and trying to convince others to do so as well.
THAT is an effort worth applauding. And that's the kind of battle that the people who support this site need to wage.
It's one thing to share ideas with people who share similar ideals.
It's another thing to put those ideas on a web site and hope that someone who doesn't share those ideas will be given reason to think.
And it's another thing entirely to actively seek out the radicals, the fanatics, the fence-sitters, the wafflers, and convince them to take action and join your fight.
That is part of the struggle I've personally had lately with continuing to write for the Moderate Republican. It's a great venue to write and share ideas with other moderates... but I always feel like I'm preaching to the choir.
It's not even good enough to preach to those in the pews.
You have to preach to those that aren't even there. We have to get our message and our passion out to people that would never think to look for the voice of moderate Republicans. We have to take it to them, every day.
Posted by: Mark Kittel at August 17, 2004 08:00 AM