This Diary started off as a comment to
this.
That kicked me off to rework it into a somewhat more verbose reply to those who call themselves "moderates" in general.
Being that I consider myself a "moderate" who just can't take it anymore, I think it is important to explain that the time has come for aggressiveness, not moderation, if we hope to return to a time where moderates can influence the political landscape again.
So You Call Yourself a Moderate?
That's nice. Pleased to meet you, I'm one too. Being an open and fair-minded person willing to carefully evaluate and reflect on all points of view is noble and admirable...most of the time...but not today. Today is the time to act decisively and immoderately to do something before the "moderate" disappears altogether.
Frankly there isn't much in the way of "moderates" left. They are an endangered species and becoming rarer by the minute. The executive branch is dominated by far right neocons, intent on bankrupting the country and engaging in dangerous, ill-thought out and foolish foreign policy, sponsored torture and run on a platform of fear and a complicitous press. Congress is dominated by a Republican Party who are being backed by an organized and powerful minority of far-right theocrats who want to remove personal freedoms and dissolve the moderate and fair concept of separation of church and state. The courts are packed with mostly conservative butts on benches from the Supreme Court on down, yet the right still moans about the "over-reaching", "activist" and "liberal" judiciary. Separation and balance of power in government is already out the window and they aren't done yet. They demand more power for an already imperial executive. The "moderate" government set up by the Constitution is nearly dead yet people are still calling for "moderation"?
How many "moderates" do you know, lined up behind Bush after 9/11 in a spirit of integrity, sportsmanship, open-mindedness and compassion? And what did that get them? Remember Kerry maintaining his "sportsman-like" integrity while he let the Swiftboat Liars for Lies run all over him?
And you think we liberals have lost the capability of moderate dialog? That we just "hate"? That we are irrational venomous scapegoaters? Have you even been to these?
Little Green Footballs
Michelle Malkin
Townhall
Conservative Underground
Free Republic
Try posting a reasoned rational post asking for cooperation between moderate liberals and conservatives on some of those sites. On most of those, you wouldn't last long enough to reply to their "venomous scapegoating" before your account was deleted.
So before you go off on liberal blogs being full of "venomous scapegoats", perhaps you should take a look at who we are up against. We aren't fighting moderates. Moderates aren't in power. Liberals don't control a single branch of government in this country. See where that got us? We are fighting for the moderate and noble principles this country was founded on against a ruthless bunch who will stop at nothing to achieve their aims. You can't rationalize with these people. There will be no engaging between moderates until the wingnuts are no longer in power. Whenever these people call for cooperation, what they really mean is suck it up, stop thinking and do what they say.
Screw that. Is that what you call moderation? So what did moderation get us? Moderation got us a clusterfark of a "War on Punctuation" and a bunch of dead people, record deficits, corporate exploitation and a Constitution that is in the process of being flushed down the toilet. And you want to talk about rational dialog, and an atmosphere of cooperation?
Once we get some balance back into our government then we can talk about moderation and holding up American values like sportsmanship, fairness, and cooperation between Democrats and Republicans. Until then, your olive branch is likely to get you kicked in the teeth and knee to the groin. This isn't a tea party.
You're a moderate? Well you'd better get immoderate if you wish moderation to survive. And if you can't fight for yourself, then get that fat high-horse the hell out of the way and we'll do it for you.