Saturday, October 30, 2010

To the folks who are upset with the 'Rally for Sanity'...

...because they think we should be fighting the denizens of Greater Wingnutia on their own level and with their own tactics...




You know, I spent a good few hours trying to figure out why I think that take on this rally is ill-conceived. Then it came to me... I absolutely understand that you want to take them on on their own terms...Would that there were a snowball's chance the battle could be won like that.

Democrats, Progressives, Liberals, Free Thinkers - Everyone even vaguely associated with our side of the fence believes in facts and figures, persuasion and provable truths. Our opposition believes in winning. They're willing to lie, to cheat and to pander to get their message across. For good or ill, We, as a collective entity, are not.

I am not talking about political campaigning. As Politifact attests daily, candidates of all stripes lie. I mean that you, me and the regular folk who are trying to communicate these ideas and positions are not going to forsake the moral high ground of truth just because 'Baggers refuse to hear anything but their own doctrine. We're kinds like the folks who help the ex-religious escape their old cultural and philosophical binds. It can't be done by creating an anti-sermon sermon. The atheists are far better spoken than the Fundies, but that hasn't helped them put an end to myths.

We have to stand our ground, live our principles and show the folks who aren't already crazied that we know something the Becks, Angles, O'Donnells, Millers, Boehners and Roves don't know... What will work for the America we ARE, not the preposterous retro-fantasy they are trying to sell the the largely unsuspecting populace.

Maybe the freedoms we have known all our lives are soon to be gone. Maybe the frightened Theocrats and thoughtless profiteering pundits will bring us down to the level of Christian Sharia. It's up in the air right now...

But, I can't lock and load while there is still some chance to bring across the vast majority of people who are NOT allied with one side or another. I goddamn well won't help them make the streets run with blood.

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