no foolin'

yeah. well. here's the deal. i have gone on record as saying that i am a left leaning independent thinker- and i think i am. i try to have a more common sense approach to life and not get hung up on ideologies and dogmas. they bug me. my buddy bz has been pestering me for a long time to leave the left behind and go independent all of the way- i am getting there. it isn't just about the congress that we elected in november--with a clear mandate mind you-- that has caused the shift- it's the bleeding heart section of the democratic party. we don't tend to air those folks out much in the political arena- we are trying to make ourselves more of a 'conservative lite' kind of party- embracing god and gettin' all hawk like- pretending to have grown a set of balls and whatnot. in our zeal to get re-elected- we have become more right like. in fact, we are encouraged to fight fire with fire- and use the techniques that have been successful for the right- i mean they did the same thing to us- hence compassionate conservatism.

anyhoo- my bigger point is this- if you are holding yourself above the fray- keep yourself out of the mud. i am enough of a snob to say that the left hasn't needed think tanks to make it through before. most of them are on the right. the left should not be using the right wing techniques to get our point across because it is the easy way out. we have many valid and truthful points to be made about the sheer volume of secrecy, greed, corruption, etc. on the right side of the spectrum. we should not forget to look into the mirror, however. we are not above using propaganda techniques and smear campaigns and twisting of truth. the right wing moderates and the left wing moderates ran this country well together. it is the ends of the bell curve that are getting us into trouble.

let's state the facts and lay the truth out into the open. let's not appeal to emotion- but intellect and reason. we have them beat in those areas.