aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Kos: we work with pols who fit the people in their districts

Still ticked at the strategy of Bush Dog attacks - I argue we should work to develop those of us who live within Marshall and Barrow’s districts to let them know there are liberals inside and to clear the way so that they actually could vote the way we want and still get re-elected - I point again to Kos who was most articulate on Meet the Press when he said:

“We started pushing Democrats to be proud to be Democrats. This had nothing to do with being centrist or liberal or conservative. It had to do with standing tall for core progressive principles. In fact, one of the first people we, we supported was Stephanie Herseth in South Dakota, who is now a Blue Dog. Ben Chandler in, in, in Kentucky. So we, and in their districts, and help them sort of get over this hump. [...] So it doesn’t matter who I think is liberal enough or conservative enough. I don’t make those value judgments. I don’t--I’m not there--arrogant to think that I should be making those decisions.”

Analogously, I would prefer presidential candidates who support marriage equality. None of the leading candidates do; I don’t expect the nominee will. I will still work for a Democrat; I won’t sit out.

In the state of Georgia today, my take is that Jim Marshall and John Barrow are as good as we’re going to get. Point me to anyone arguing that a more liberal candidate will win here.

Schaller and his crowd may like the notion of a “soft partition” of these United States that in effect writes off the South. I, emphatically, do not.