SATURDAY SERMON

Barry Crimmins has his latest issue of Crimquips up and in his usual wry manner puts the pieces of the primary picture together. I love the way this man thinks. He dismisses the Skull and Bones conspiracy theory with sound logic and posts this important point about his reasoning on Kerry.

Were I voting tomorrow it would be for Dennis Kucinich. And I have sniped at Kerry for years- in Massachusetts - in print -- on stage. But unlike George W. Bush when Kerry runs into someone he knows he is courteous and says hello, rather than snubbing that person over political differences. Had I ever known Bush and then publicly challenged and criticized his positions do you think I could have ever expected any sort of courtesy from the man? Of course not.

I voted for Gore for the same reason. I wasn't so much thrilled about his platform as much as I was convinced he at least had some social grace. I predicted from the get-go that Bush would embroil us in an international diplomacy disaster because he has none.

I've witnessed that same dearth of courtesy in the blogosphere among the right wing Bush Policy Apologists Cabal (BPAC) as they delight in their mockery of the left's words - focusing always on obscure statements taken out of context in order to obfuscate the larger and valid points. The Articulate Liberals In Search of Truth (ALIST) however, are unfortunately not always immune to this affliction either.

I've been shouted at by anarchists, socialists, communists, Marxists and Libertarians who tell me that I just don't get the point. But I do. I get all their points. I just don't think anyone is ever entirely correct, not even me and their models all fail on the unaddressed problem of man's inherent self-interest.

Common ground by definition must be shared and the only way to reach a social consensus is to respect each other's opinions - no matter how much we disagree. You can't build consensus with self-righteous disdain and intractable ideology, even if you really are right. The foundation of civil society rests on courteous discourse and compromise and in a civilized debate, manners matter.