Reply #84: there are allies there [View All]

[m berst]

I strongly believe that there are potential allies over there for a strong progressive movement. The Dominionists and the neo-cons have created a shaky alliance of people to support them, but it can be easily demonstrated that they are seriously misleading their supporters. Most rural people are not inherently any more or less hateful than people anywhere else - ignorant, yes, and therefore easy to mislead. They don't see how their Christianity is being used and turned into an instrument of hatred, but then how many Democrats see that their liberalism is being co-opted and turned into a justification and sugar-coating for corporate imperialism? Of course rural people are unfamiliar with the reality for urban people, but the same can be said for urban people about rural people.

Had the party taken a strong stand on universal health care, and on economic issues; had the party opposed NAFTA and WTO, it would take all the wind out of the neo-cons sails. Had the party taken a strong stand against the war, that would have trumped the Dominionists' phony moral issues.

That tells us (if you accept that what I say is true about it) that there are deeper more important issues that the Democratic party is not connecting to people on. This leaves a vacuum, and the con-men and hucksters in the Republican party and in the Evangelical community move in to that vacuum. If we attack the "sheep" in that flock - no matter how much we believe them to deserve it - we drive them closer to the con men and charlatans.