Absolutism Sucks

Here's what I wrote to Digby when he admonished the Democratic hand-wringers for wailing about how Kerry lost the election:

If you like to scare yourself with the rightwing blogs as I do, you will notice a COMPLETE and TOTAL lack of any of this sort of self-doubt and self-analysis. Blind adherance to one point of view is not strength, it is an amoral personality defect that lends itself to bullying and fascism. So we could congratulate ourselves that the ability to be self-critical is not a loser trait, it just means that we are still capable of critical thinking.

I was paraphrasing the intent of a long-lost essay about the perils of absolutism. Thanks to the writer for the inspiration, I would ref. you if I remembered.

Those jocks and frats who are today's dittohead bad-boy Republicans were the bullies who beat up my friends in high school and college for being queer, black, stoners, goth, or brainy. They are just self-centered and mean, and they NEVER question themselves about what is right or wrong. So they never have to flip-flop on an issue, or admit that they were wrong.

So maybe those handwringing gloom and doom Democrats are not so bad. Maybe they will talk me into voting for Kerry after all.

When I talk to younger people today, I am often really impressed. Smart, worldy, mature beyond their years, they don't seem to think that cynicism or Rottweiler meanness is cool. So maybe they will be the ones who change the election and the state of the Democratic Party after my Reagan youth generation and the Limbaugh attitude have gone out of fashion.