Reply #7: "purity"? You mean like the endless bullshit calls to throw gays, pro-choicers, atheists, etc under

[Warren DeMontague]

the bus, like after the 2004 election?

Remember? How about that endless stream of deeply "concerned" threads expressing heartfelt "concern" that, you know, by being so intransigent on issues like reproductive freedom or full equality for our GLBT citizens, we were (and are still, presumably) "alienating the values voter"...?

Oh, yes, the all powerful values voter. We must cower in fear of the all-powerful values voter, because the media tells us that the all-powerful values voter is all powerful, and the media never lies, right?

Never mind the fact that the MAJORITY OF AMERICANS ARE PRO-CHOICE, for instance.

Wait- What was that? The Majority of Americans are pro-choice? How can that be? After all, the media constantly tells us what a "loser issue" standing up for the rights of women to control their own bodies is...

Funny, I seem to remember a brisk April day in 2004, standing with 1.2 Million Other Americans on the Mall in DC, in the LARGEST PEACEABLE ASSEMBLY IN U.S. History- marching for reproductive choice. And what did the media do in response to such a tectonic event? Well, CNN spent the day at a racetrack chasing down elusively drunk "NASCAR Voters" who were inevitably pro-Bush... that is, when they weren't talking about Estee Lauder's very important death.

One could be forgiven for not knowing that THE MAJORITY OF AMERICANS ARE PRO CHOICE, just like one could be forgiven for not knowing that large numbers of Americans protested the Iraq War before it started- the media doesn't want to remind you.

Meanwhile, the GOP plunges ahead with an agenda of outlawing not just abortion, but most forms of birth control as well... Clearly, they are in tune with where the great heartland stands on these issues.. right?

Yes. The values voter truly is all-powerful. That's why Terri Schiavo was such a stunning success story for the GOP.

Here's my definition of "purity", Will- and I know it's really, really unreasonable-

I don't care if People, or even my fellow Democrats believe with their heart of hearts that life begins at the second of conception, that a fertilized human egg is the EXACT SAME THING as a "baby", or that the birth control pill is little concentrated nuggets of dehydrated Satan. My "purity" issue comes in when people start trying to pass LAWS imposing the same on the rest of us. You can be as Catholic as you want, but The Pope's place is in the Vatican under a giant hat, or in the Popemobile- not my wife's Uterus.

Likewise, I try to understand if people aren't "comfortable" with Gay Marriage. That's why I'm extremely glad our Democratic Leadership dropped all those bills attempting to force non-gay social conservatives to BE Gay or HAVE gay weddings of their own...

...cough...

...Nevertheless, the idea that two gay people getting married has some kind of magical spooky-action-at-a-distance quantum effect on social conservatives who have never met them to the point where those social conservatives NEED to limit the marriage rights OF those gay citizens, I call bullshit.

Don't like Gay Marriage? Don't have one.

And lastly- and I realize I'm flirting with charges of "intolerance" or "bigotry", here- if someone wants to believe that the Earth is 6,000 years old, or Dinosaurs were on "Noah's Ark" (standard disclaimer: yes, I realize these are fringe positions NOT representative of most "Christians" or most theists, TYVM) if someone genuinely wants to believe those things, no one will stop them. But if they want to peddle those things as "science" or try to float unsubstantiated bullshit in a public school science curriculum, then Houston, we have a problem. If standing up strongly for the proposition of separation of church and state means I risk "alienating the (dreaded) values voter", then I guess I'm alienating the values voter, Sparky.

But I'm willing to compromise- I promise not to march into anyone's church and demand the right to start teaching Darwin there.

What can I say? I'm a Purity Nazi.