Why I am so passionate about the Kerry issue.

[madfloridian]

It is not really about Kerry, you know. It is about our party overall, and about Kerry only incidentally. Our Democrats have got to get over this fear of the right wing attacks.

My son is here this week, a staunch Republican. He thinks Kerry was right, and was proud he spoke up and defended himself. He did not even have to think about it, he just said good for him for speaking up. Don't underestimate the intelligence of the general populace.

This is about standing up for fellow Democrats when they dare to speak the truth. There has not been a lot of that kind of courage for a while, too many Democrats think by appeasing and pacifying they will not hurt anyone's feelings.

It has to stop.

This happened last year to Howard Dean. It is one reason these Democratic attacks on Kerry hit me so hard. Few stood by Dean. Only a few. He was attacked just as viciously as Kerry is being attacked right now. Yet he was right, just as Kerry is right.

There comes a time in a party when they must make decisions about who they are and what they stand for. Don't bother reading the discussions on this thread, they are too ugly. I am trying to make a point.

Dean in San Antonio about Iraq
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/189

I've seen this before in my life. This is the same situation we had in Vietnam. Everybody then kept saying, 'just another year, just stay the course, we'll have a victory.' Well, we didn't have a victory, and this policy cost the lives of an additional 25,000 troops because we were too stubborn to recognize what was happening."