"The Heart of the Democratic Party" by Digby
Read the whole thing at Hullabaloo, the excerpt below doesn't do the post justice.
"We like to think that we are about reason and rationality while the other side is all hot emotionality. But, we are all humans blesssed with the full spectrum of human attributes. The difference, it seems to me, is which human qualities lead us and where they take us.
"The civil rights movement gives us the perfect window. Democrats led with their hearts on that issue. Although they knew it was politically dangerous they did it anyway because they were moved as human beings to do the right thing against their own political best interests. Immediately, the Republicans coolly and methodically set out to take advantage of the opening. The party of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan had no personal stake in the issue of racial justice. The Republican party had, since Lincoln, been the African Americans' home. Both of those men were from California, so they also had no regional attachment to the "southern culture" that would have made them nostalgic for the old ways. Their Southern Strategy was pure, cold political calculation and it served them very well. A look at the 2004 electoral map confirms it.
We led with our hearts on civil rights and they led with their heads. And we were right. I believed Bill Clinton when he said that he'd cried when he heard the "I have A Dream Speech." Many, many people did. That moment symbolized the crucible of American culture. It challenged us to rise above the original sin of slavery and do the right thing. The people who heard that call were the people who formed the heart of the Modern Democratic Party. ....
"Martin Luther King was murdered before his dream could be realized. But it's getting better slowly but surely. There will be no going back. It's an enormous achievement for a screwed up country like ours that we've finally managed to make progress in spite of the huge cultural obstacles that were virtually built into our political system from the very beginning.
"Democrats led the way on that and paid a huge political price. For all the talk of spinelessness and weakness that you hear out there, when the chips were down, the Democratic Party showed that it would stand up for what was right. There is no doubt which party Martin Luther King would choose today.
"I'm not evolved enough, I'm afraid, to be forgiving for what the Republicans have done to this country these last few years. I'll need some time to come to that. But, I appreciate the notion that we can't let them sour us and turn inward. Nothing will ever change if we do that. And I figure as long as African Americans are in our party fighting the good fight, the least I can do is stand beside them."
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