Serious questions for those who are convinced that Obama, Clinton, and Gore are not liberals.

[frazzled]

32. I think you're missing the OP's point

Can you answer the question as to whether Bernie Sanders or Alan Grayson could ever be elected president? If your answer is anything other than an honest "no" you're probably living under quite an illusion, not just as to the ideologies involved but to the personalities and politics as well.

It's easy for someone to cling tenaciously to their ideologies when the stakes are very low: if you're one of 435 or one of 100 whose oppositional vote doesn't matter. For the president, the stakes are always sky high. The president doesn't represent a small district like Grayson or even a small state like Sanders. (S)he is president of all the people, left and right, and of the entire country, which if you've noticed lately, is not of one mind. The president must find solutions to things to keep the country going. That takes a steady hand and a willingness to give up certain things in order to obtain others. And if Bernie Sanders or Alan Grayson were somehow magically to become president, you'd probably be yelling about how they too were wishywashy center right.

The last question had to do with the Tea Party tactics. Are we going to emulate them in the way they cling to their principles and ideologies, to the point that they practically shut the country down? Is "my way or the highway" a liberal stance? Is part of being liberal also being flexible? Or should we all be little Robespierres who believe so strongly in liberty that we're willing to guillotine people right and left for looking less than fanatic? These are serious questions for serious times.