Clinton to Democrats: Discuss Convictions

[papau]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BILL_CLINTON?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=POLITICS&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Nov 10, 9:59 AM EST

Clinton to Democrats: Discuss Convictions

By MARC HUMBERT
Associated Press Writer

CLINTON, N.Y. (AP) -- Former President Clinton, noting an "astonishing turnout among evangelical Christians" in this year's election, warned Tuesday that Democrats "cannot be nationally competitive when we don't feel comfortable talking about our convictions."

"I do not believe either party has a monopoly on morality or truth," Clinton told an audience of more than 4,500 at Hamilton College in upstate New York.<snip>

"I think the current divisions are partly the fault of the people in my party for not engaging the Christian evangelical community in a serious discussion of what it would take to promote a real culture of life," Clinton said.<snip>

On Friday, in a speech in New York City, Clinton said the Democratic Party needs to rework its image. He attributed Kerry's loss to the Democrats' failure to combat how they were portrayed by Republicans to rural and small-town America.

"If we let people believe that our party doesn't believe in faith and family, doesn't believe in work and freedom, that's our fault," he said.

[lovedems]

1. Engage the Christian evangelical community?

Ignoring them would be better. There isn't any compromising with them and as much as I love The Big Dog, I completely disagree with him on this one.

[merh]

2. Fuck him and his damned holy white horse

"I think the current divisions are partly the fault of the people in my party for not engaging the Christian evangelical community in a serious discussion of what it would take to promote a real culture of life," Clinton said."

I am a Christian, but I don't need to be courted. The problem with this damned election is that the politicians have allowed the media to be controlled by the corporations which control and favor the repukes and which wanted the weed in office.

Clinton shares the responsibility regarding the corporate takeover of the press and his "we should have been holier than thou" crap pisses me off.

True Christians cannot support the lying, murdering, evil that is the BFEE!

Smoke and fuckin mirrors -

Wet hides on hunting trails.

[farmbo]

3. I'll discuss "convictions"... for Rove, Cheney, Libby and Halliburton

Right now those are the only convictions that matter to me.

If our system allows these crooks to scoff at the law, disclose undercover Intel agents, steer contracts, and self-deal... our future elections will not matter. They too will be irredeemably corrupted.

[hlthe2b]

4. Exactly... but don't stop there!

[meow2u3]

16. You took the words right off my keyboard

Discuss convictions is right! Bush's and Cheney's criminal convictions!!!

[LeftHander]

5. WRONG!

Liberal values will not play to the Christian evangelicals.

The Democrats need to find the Religious Liberals that happen to be CHristians and embrace them.

[Benhurst]

7. Christian values based on the teachings of Christ won't play

to the "Christian" evangelicals.

[merh]

12. The values of the Democratic Party as I know it are

Christian values. Liberals are more Christian than the "Christian Right".

What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?"

If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal."

But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a 'Liberal.'

-John F. Kennedy September 14, 1960

[hexola]

6. "I do not believe either party has a monopoly on morality or truth,"

Man - I have been saying this for a long time!!!

And I might add that, no religion has an exclusive on morality either...

I'm against abortion...but it doesnt have the slightest thing to do with God, Jesus or any religion. But the right will thump their Bibles and claim that "This nation was founded on Christian Principles blah blah blah..." We cannont let them make changes in Society in the name of Religion...

How can we claim the moral highground without Religion? How can you convince a Chistian that you shouldn't screw your neighbors wife just because it's not nice and you wouldn't want him to screw yours....instead they try to "trademark" this moralism and claim it was invented by Jesus or something...call it "Christian Value" - Well shit---I'm no Christian...but I can, and do live by the ten commandments...not conciously...it's just a coincidence that my morality matches that of Christians...(arguable...cultural influence)

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. The "Big Dawg" of the DLC barks.

Translation of his remarks: "Pandering to the right worked for me, it can work for others willing to grovel."

[Squeech]

9. Whose moral values?

I wouldn't trust anybody who told me that gay marriage was going to destroy Western civilization, whereas the Abu Ghraib atrocities were just a kind of fraternity prank that got out of hand.

Of course, I'm also considering the source-- we get so many lectures on morality from Oxycontin addicts, serial adulterers, gamblers, and similar paragons.

And this is the real problem: the "morality" talk is just talk-- none of these people are willing to walk the walk. Before anybody tells me about the mote in my eye, I require at least an acknowledgement of the beam in his.

[IrateCitizen]

14. It may be just talk -- but it makes a difference.

Most people approach politics from largely an emotional level. Therefore, whichever candidate is able to make them feel better, they will more likely vote for.

If you try appealing to this mindset with reason, you will lose. It's not a hunch, it's just a plain fact. However, if you approach every issue in a way that directly ties in to your core values, and you show your side as standing for what it believes in, then you will succeed -- because you will connect with the voters where they are, at an emotional level.

Why do you think that Barack Obama is as successful as he is? It's because he has the uncanny ability to "go to where the people are" and connect with them. He doesn't do this by talking about issues, issues and more issues. He does it by talking to them about the values that form his moral core, demonstrating that he stands for something and is not afraid to stand up for something. Of course, issues do enter into the discussion now and then, but when they do it's ALWAYS in terms of his core values. In short, he approaches them on an emotional level, and they walk away "feeling good" about him as a candidate and a politician.

[Squeech]

15. You say

"and you show your side as standing for what it believes in"

It can be shown, and has been repeatedly, that their side doesn't actually believe in or practice what they purport to stand for. That's why I brought up the Oxycontin etc. More to the point, what happened when Gov. Riley of Alabama tried to push a tax reform, which was admittedly an increase, on explicitly religious values right out of the Sermon on the Mount?

And yet voters buy their transparent nonsense. There's a bigger problem here than that we *can't* talk about this stuff.

I confess I think the way to go is to admit that Americans seem to need an enemy, and start talking in explicitly populist terms about how the real enemy is Enron/Halliburton/Diebold/Walmart.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. This from the man who caved in to the Right wing whenever possible?

I voted for Ralph Nader as a protest in 1996, and I'm not ashamed of it.

(Don't worry: I voted Dem in both 2000 and 2004.)

[merh]

13. This from a man who got a blow job in the oval office

"because he could" when he knew that the right wingers were out to get him. He is no political guru - his indiscretions while in office and while being targeted by the other side were stupid.

[Killarney]

11. I think he's right that neither party is aligned perfectly with

the Christian doctrine.

The Democrats are pro-choice. The Republicans are pro-death penalty, pro-war, against the environment, against helped the poor, etc.

It's too bad we can't get the message out there that the Republicans are not the holy party and that the Democrats--despite the issue of abortion--are actually more closely aligned with the teachings of Christ.

It's too bad Father Andrew Greeley doesn't have his own 700-club-type show.

[dkofos]

17. The only convictions I want to dicuss are

The convictions of the bush crime family for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and TREASON.