Yesterday evening I received a call from a push poller for Jim Gerlach (Republican congressman from the Pennsylvania Sixth District). The poll tried very hard to convince me that Lois Murphy (his Democratic challenger) is an evil, terrible liberal who will make Nancy Pelosi ("a liberal San Francisco Democrat!") the Speaker of the House. I tried very hard not to laugh at the phone-drone giving the poll when the questions he read were attempts to convince me that Murphy's intention to vote against the war and against the PATRIOT Act were bad things.

But more interesting than the mere existence of this push poll, in my opinion, is the question I was asked during it: "How do you intend to vote this November? By going to the polls, by turning in an absentee ballot, or..." Unfortunately, I forget the third option, which was also an absentee form of voting.

The fact that the Gerlach campaign wanted to know how I would be casting my ballot interests me. Why the heck do they want to know that?

As a side note: If you're going to poll someone here in Pennsylvania, it's probably not a good idea to hire a company which is so deep in the South that I can barely understand the accent of the poll-taker. I had to ask him to repeat himself at least twice. Bad Gerlach campaign! No doughnut! Or...actually...good Gerlach campaign! Please keep reminding Pennsylvanians that you don't care about bringing jobs here!

This is a discussion regarding http://www.democraticunderground.com/discu...

Speaking as a moderate, and speaking, of course, only for myself, I don't think you hate moderates. I think you hate conservatives, and saying that you hate moderates just drives us away at the very time when the more liberal wing of the Democratic Party needs us.

We moderates hate the Iraq War. It's wasteful of our money and our soldiers, it's killing innocent Iraqis, and it was started by a President who lied deliberately and quite possibly treasonously to start a war of aggression - a war crime which calls for the stiffest penalties under the international rules we Americans put in place after the Second World War.

We moderates believe that the poor, the young, and the old must be taken care of. We may disagree on how much should be spent or on how the resources should be apportioned, but we believe that letting the old, the young, or the ill to starve or suffer is incompatible with civilization. The discussion over how to help and how much to spend is democracy, and it's a discussion that has been going on for over two hundred years, trending always towards helping more no matter how many times the conservatives make it backslide.

We moderates don't side with the conservatives. We believe in the separation of church and state. We believe in the rule of law. Be believe in acting in the world with the help of allies rather than going it alone. We believe that America is for all of us, not just for the rich or the powerful or the well-connected. We believe that the color of one's skin is meaningless, and that the benefits of our country belong to all of us.

We don't capitulate. If anything, we fight harder because it seems no one ever listens to us. Certainly, the pundits say that they and the politicians they go to cocktail parties with are interested in our opinions. However, what they do is put words in our mouths and then pretend that's what we said we want. You want to be pissed off? Try listening to some mealy-mouthed conservative pundit saying that moderates don't accept abortion rights. It makes me want to hit someone. Especially when the polls show the exact opposite, but no one ever calls the pundits on it!

Please don't lump the vast majority of us moderates in with the fools who think that the Republican Party will address the interests of moderates. We moderates are the ones who voted for Clinton and Gore. We're part of that vast majority that's in favor of stem cell research. We're over a third of the country. You need us, and we need you.

I've compiled a few words which are important to know as we move forward into the second half of the Bush Decade. Please know these. There will be a test. (We call that test an election.)

victory: a state of perpetual war.
"We're six months away from victory in Iraq."

Congress: a sanitarium for 535 mental patients.
"Congress believes in victory."

desuetude: a disused place or thing that we're being a little too polite to call squalor.
"Under the Bush Administration, the Constitution fell into a state of desuetude."

Al Qaida: (1) a group of losers who are close to defeat under the onslaught of American might. (2) an indomitable force for terror which forces us to give up our rights so we may fight them. (c.f. paradox)
"The Republicans are the only ones who can fight Al Qaida. That's why it has taken them five years to fail to kill one old guy with kidney failure."

rights: (term is becoming obsolete) impediments to victory.
"We must give up our rights so we can fight terrorism."

terrorism: anything bad.
"Killing yourself to escape the horror of Guantanamo is terrorism."

truth: a statement which doesn't contradict the official story coming out of the White House.
"Fox News is dedicated to the truth. And to victory."