« I Love New York (Though I Hate the Republicans and the Yankees) | Main | They're Arresting Reporters? »
August 29, 2004
Kegs for Kerry or How I Got Accused of Being on the Fence
Electablog has a very good vantage point on the protests at the RNC - the way there's no control over them, and how they may do more harm than good. Some of the protestors fail to recognize how their actions can harm the very cause for which they're working.
At the end of July, the night Nomar was traded, one of the local Kerry boosters held a kegger in honor of our favourite candidate - we called it "Kegs for Kerry". At this party, discussions came up about how to further our cause - and what we needed to do to ensure that we won Florida. Through the course of this conversation, I stated my attitude of refusing to "demonize" the opposition - IE: I didn't feel it was productive to get up and call Dubya a Nazi. I feel that the facts speak for themselves, and that discussing how Bush's administration has been a Miserable Failure is different than saying that George W. Bush likes to rape babies and steal crackers from old people. Obviously, this didn't sit well with some. But when the discussion came about over protests - one particularly zealous partisan wanted to hold a bikeride through downtown Orlando that would disrupt rushhour. I proceeded to chastize this guy over the fact that "Pissing off swing voters is not a way to win an election". I joking went on to say that if you made me late to work, or kept me from getting where I'm going - that I might vote for Dubya. This elicted the response of "Well, it seems you're on the fence already." The only way we're going to improve the discussion in this country is if we're willing to stop pretending that the other side are Nazis or Communists. I'm not saying that we need to roll over, but I am saying that we're acting just as poorly as they are.
Posted by MikeSager at August 29, 2004 8:32 PM
Trackback Pings
To send a Trackback, please use:
http://www.carpetblogger.com/cgi-bin/mt-whattocheck.cgi/13
Comments
Post a comment