I encourage anyone who is interested in this subject of the future of the Democratic Party, to read Peter Beinart's very thought-provoking article on The New Republic website (free registration required)
http://tinyurl.com/5z4d6 http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi%3D20041213%26s%3Dbeinart121 304 It runs 11 pages, and covers a lot of the history of liberalism and the Democratic Party, and is a very interesting read, and very thought-provoking. If you don't want to register, the bullet-point summary is: "Its national security, stupid!" Meanwhile, I can't help but post the following quotes from Dr. Brin's own essay on this subject: >Look around. Find your own examples, while noting these traits of romanticism: ... >Enemies are strawmen caricatures, universally wrong, never worthy adversaries >deserving negotiation. .... >Call it a way to pick nicer conservatives instead of haters, in each > Republican primary. .... > I don't really care it's a Democrat or a Republican, so long as it's reasonable, > moderate, broadminded, forward-looking, honest, accountable... and human. One can draw one's own conclusions, I guess.... but the criteria of "enemies are strawmen caricatures, universally wrong, never worthy adversaries deserving negotiation" seems particularly ironic, doesn't it? JDG _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
