“It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into”

Jonathan Swift
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"The Democrats have moved to the right, and the right has moved into a mental hospital." - Bill Maher
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"The city is crowded my friends are away and I'm on my own
It's too hot to handle so I gotta get up and go

It's a cruel ... cruel summer"

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Freedom of speech as long as you agree with us.

Yesterday I read yet another idea squelching column in the Globe Republican. This article written by a member of one of the legion of mega funded Republican think tanks argued that Democrats lack a cohesive set of ideas about how to solve the situation in Iraq. In other words its the old flip-flop arguement.

Has it occured to anyone that complete homogeniety of ideas is a terribly dangerous thing? I can't tell you how many times I've seen our party criticized for lacking a completely homogenous opinion about a given issue. It's as if the Republican think tanks recognized that many people can't handle it when someone falls outside of their ridgid ideal of what is right and wrong and struck upon the perfect arguement to combat such behavior.

Every time a Republican accuses anyone of flip flopping, or of lacking a cohesives opinion they are not really offering a valid criticism. Is it better to analyze all of the opitions, change one's mind if necessary, and maybe even posit multiple solution? Or should we all fixate upon one opinion emailed to us by tbe party?

Bottom line, with the think-tank produced flip flop critique the Repubs have destroyed free thought for their entire party, and are trying to do it to the Democratic party as well. They are searching for that perfect place where everyone feels exactly the same about every issue, and they are trying to force us into that place with the flip flop arguement. Republicans have become like a pack of zombies all sitting back waiting for the next Ann Coulter book or Rush Limbaugh commentary(Michelle Malkin, Sean Hannity, Bill O Reilly, Oliver North etc... etc... etc... all products of big money Republican think tank logic) so they can get into a comfortable place where everyone is just like they are.

We must begin to attack this notion that it is a bad idea to have differing ideas within our own or our opponents own party. The damage is already done, but calling a facist a facist is a good way to combat this thinking.