Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Only Greens have consciences?


Green Party member Kim Knox in yesterday's BeyondChron: "In light of Friday's Congressional vote of 400-3 against a nonbinding resolution calling for the immediate withdrawal of troops in Iraq, I wonder why progressives would stay in a party that refuses to vote its conscience" (Progressives should be Green).

One of the reasons many progressives stay in the Democratic Party is their aversion to this kind of self-righteousness behind the whole "green" political project. Only Greens have consciences? Knox doesn't seem to think that people of good will can disagree about the war in Iraq, that other consciences might conclude that different behavior is required. In fact, as hard as it may be for Knox to understand, many still support the war, and many who don't support the war think a precipitate US withdrawl would be disastrous for both Iraqis and, in the long run, the US. In short, the Green Party has no monopoly on morality and conscience. 

The Green Party's SF website has more of this Knox-like smugness, along with other crackpot stuff, like an anti-American lecture by convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal. That old, stick-in-the-mud Democratic Party finds killing American cops unconscionable.

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2 Comments:

At 2:05 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

so it's self-righteous and smug to act and express what you believe? would it be better to just sweep the ugliness under the rug and keep your head burried in the sand as many Dems continue to do?

 
At 2:50 PM, Blogger Rob Anderson said...

No, but it's self-righteous to act as if you have a monopoly on political morality. Obviously, many Democrats think it would be wrong for the US to pull out before the Iraqis have a chance to defend themselves against the "insurgents,"aka "terrorists." That's not burying your head in the sand; that's just coming to a different conclusion morally. Do you think everyone who disagrees with you on the war in Iraq is morally deficient?

 

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