John Kerry asked us to pledge to build bridges to unify the United States. I think that now, since the antagonistic election process is over, we might be able to rekindle the conversation on issues of good government, without the so-called 'moral issues' completly drowning out the voices.
Here is an excerpt from a rather blunt, yet insightful piece.
" Fear and prejudice, Bush's twin allies, go hand in hand with the refusal to think, something that has always been part of American politics: The Republican Party actually had its origins, in the 1840s, as a faction of the anti-immigrant, fundamentalist Know-Nothing movement. A century and a half have only upped the ante: We live in a country as flooded with information as it is with conflicting viewpoints and contrasting ways of life. To understand the mistaken half of our electorate, we have to begin with the realization that this flood of data can itself be a source of fear.
The longing to be simple and to solve problems simply is a natural human impulse. We on what might be called the unfrightened side of the informational flood have to make a start at bridge building and boat rescues; those on the other side are too panicked by the sight of the flood. Ill luck and unwisdom have made them run to a man whose only perceivable goal is to lead us all, like lemmings, over the cliff to drown. So our job for the next four years, while fighting every way we can to extricate our country from the messes Bush has already made, is to reassure simple souls by educating in simple terms. And to avoid condescension, this means reorienting ourselves to them, understanding that we have a basic faith in democracy, free speech, the separation of church and state, the balance of power among branches of government. We, as well as our opposites, have often enough let our prejudices and the media barrage obscure our understanding."
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