I just have to get this off my chest. The Hackett-Brown flamefest feels like anotehr straw on this particular camel's back...I apply this little rant to myself as much as anyone else. I think it's something we all are part of.

All of the back-and-forth and circular firing squads on the Democratic/Liberal/Progressive side in recent years seems to me to be a case of missing the forest for the trees.

What do we believe in? Really. What the hell do we feel strongly about which has prevented us from simply taking the pasth of least resistance, drinking the KoolAid and becoming Republicans or members of the Apathy Party?

You can avoid all of the churning in your stomach. Really. If you live a quiet life and just think about family, friends and your job, you can get along fine. Think how happy and peaceful you'd be to just go with the flow.

So if you're upset, there must be a reason. Or a lot of reasons.

Is itjust Politics as Sport, and you have picked your team and want to see it win? Or is it an essential sense of right and wrong that you can't turn off? Is it a set of beliefs BEYOND PARTISAN POLITICS that you feel on a gut level? Is it a well-thought out vision of what sociaty could become if we followed certain values and ideas and policies?

Why the hell should we care? What do we agree on that seperates us from Republicans and the Apathy Party?

I think before we continue to throw babies out with bathwater, form circular firing squads, shoot ourselves in the foot fatally -- (Pick whatever analogy you want) -- we all ought to clear our heads and think about what are First Principles, both individually and collectively.

That way we might be able to come up with more consistent and shared strategies, messages, framing, etc. that might actually move us forward instead of rowing this boat around in endless circles.