A LITTLE DECORUM, PLEASE

Let us try to establish some ground rules.  

First, this blog is intended as a a conversation, not as an exercise in polemic or verbal mud-wrestling.  If you are so wrought up that you cannot speak civilly, then take it elsewhere until you calm down.  

Second, especially if you are going to be abusive or insulting, simple courage requires that you not hide behind "anonymous."  If you are going to address another commentator by name, then identify yourself by name.  If Google for some reason does not permit you to sign a comment with your name, you can identify yourself in the body of the comment.  The only reason for remaining anonymous is a genuine fear of retaliation.  If you have such a fear, and it is legitimate, explain it in your comment.

Third,  the besetting sin of left wing politics is the sort of factional feuding characteristic of religious sects.  Try to remember that in a country of three hundred and thirty million people, any successful political movement will necessarily involve the cooperation or collaboration of groups with many serious differences of belief and commitment.  Members of a religious sect seeking eternal salvation may believe that doctrinal purity takes precedence over all else, but political actors who think that their greatest threat comes from those close to them on the political spectrum rather than from those at the opposite end doom themselves to marginalization.

Does that mean that progressives must yield to centrists, that rebels must fall in line with party hacks?  No, it doesn't.  How do those in the left wing of the Democratic Party gain greater power?  Well, first of all, they get themselves elected to something.  Then they join with other leftists who have gotten themselves elected.  If enough of them get elected, they begin to be able to wield power in a state legislature or in the House of Representatives or even in the  Senate.  Why is American politics so awful?  One reason is that large swathes of the American public are awful.  I am sitting here in North Carolina represented in the House of Representatives by a poisonous ex-pastor.  Why?  Because large numbers of my fellow Tar Heels cannot be bothered to go to the polls and vote on election day.

Finally, I am eighty-four years old.  I have been fighting these battles for more than sixty years.  I have spoken publicly, in print and in person, more times than young people can imagine.  I have earned the right to expect those reading this blog to acknowledge that lifetime of action and to understand that it is not necessary to say everything one believes every time one speaks.  If that is too difficult for you to acknowledge, then go somewhere else.