Nice post about Kerry's Dissent speech at The Moderate Voice

[beachmom]

I have to say, THIS is what I am looking for. Moderate people who agree that this administration is not just on the wrong path, but is taking us away from our ideals.

http://www.themoderatevoice.com/posts/1145812248.shtml

Patriotism and dissent
by Michael Stickings

In a speech at Boston's Faneuil Hall marketplace (a wonderful part of the city that I frequented regularly during my years at Tufts), John Kerry said that dissent during wartime is patriotic, "a response to Republican critics who insist that questioning the conduct of the war in Iraq emboldens America's enemies," according to a report in The Washington Post.

snip

He may indeed be running a "shadow presidential campaign," and I wish he'd been this aggressive back when he was running a real campaign in '04, but he's absolutely right about this.

It's been said that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, but I would argue that questioning the patriotism of one's political opponents, calling them traitors and their opposition treason, is truly the political scoundrel's last refuge. And that's exactly what some Republicans and conservatives have been doing. With nothing else going for them, they've repeatedly played the patriotism card, whether it's on Iraq or the Patriot Act or NSA eavesdropping or prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo. It's been absolutely shameful, a thorough debasing of America's already debased political culture. Democrats, and indeed all opponents of the White House and its Republican lackeys (including Republicans like John McCain and Chuck Hagel), need to stand firm in their patriotic dissent.

They are the true patriots, after all, and in John Kerry they have a proud and honorable spokesman.

[wisteria]

1. Thanks for posting. n/t