Diseased Liberal

Billmon has two excellent posts up. Both deal with what he calls the “Liberal Disease”. He is discussing something that I have touched on numerous times and, being a professional writer, does it better than I could have. The subject is summarized in the following quote:

That's pretty much the last ten years of American political history in a nutshell. While liberals sift and weigh the evidence, debate alternative points of view, and reach for that ever elusive "fairness," the conservative machine sifts and weighs alternative propaganda points, debates the best way to manipulate public opinion, and reaches for power -- first, last and always.

or even better he quotes from David Horowitz’s Art of Political Warfare

You cannot cripple an opponent by outwitting him in a political debate. You can do it only by following Lenin's injunction: "In political conflicts, the goal is not to refute your opponent's argument, but to wipe him from the face of the earth."

I guess the question is … are we on the left mentally, or psychologically capable of dealing with intercourse at this level? Do we want too? The ultimate question, of course, is…Is it worth it? Do I want to get down in the gutter and roll around in the slime? Do I want to enrage my fellow humans and denigrate anyone who doesn’t agree with me? Can I afford the damage to my psyche? My Karma? Do the ends justify the means?
Would I trade my life, right now, to spare the lives of all my fellows who have died in Iraq or to save the thousands from lifetimes of pain and disability? Would I trade my life to spare the tens of thousands of Iraqi’s that have died or been maimed as a result of Bush’s Folly?
These, however, are the wrong questions. The only people being asked to give their lives are our poor sons and daughters that Bush has sent on his big adventure. You and I are the ones facing the questions on a daily basis. We are the ones that have a choice about whether we get our hands dirty or not.
It may not be someone we know but it will be someone we care about, that will benefit if we don’t give up. Regardless of all the warts and scratches the founding principles of this country are still valid. They are not valid because they are American but because they are universal. Somewhere, some when, somebody should realize the promise and that is why we should not stand by and wring our hands while the christofascists destroy the universal dream embodied in the Declaration of Independence, too many have died and suffered, on both sides, for us to give up now.
Yeah, you can call me Don Quixote and you can sneer at my beliefs and you can call me liberal and laugh at my ideals, but in the long run my ideals will win out. They will win because people yearn to be free, happy, unafraid and peaceful. It is the natural way. It is the Tao. You can force it down with fear and greed only for awhile before it wins again. If I have to crawl down into their miserable hellhole existence in order to encourage a little peace and understanding, and Goddess forbid, Love then “Bring It On”.