Democrat or Republican

[FotoPlasma]

Originally posted by rbayer


What does that have to do with anything? I'm about as Liberal as they come, yet Sam and I are still friends and even coach a lego-league team together. Should political views affect how we like a person?

I honestly believe that Paul Wellstone was one of the last good (in the moral sense) politicians. He never sold out, he never backed down, and he never cared whether how he voted on a bill would get him re-elected. He even disagreed with the democratic party at times. I don't know about you, but I think that means something.

In my opinion, the memorial should have been about Wellstone, not about the DFL (that's what we Minnesotans call democrats) and the upcoming election. People of all backgrounds and political views should be allowed to say goodbye to a man they worked with on a daily basis.

Seing the so-called "memorial" service quickly turn into a campaign rally sickened me so much that I had to turn it off. If you've seen it, you know what I mean.

I have many different kinds of friends, as well. I'd like to think that I'm friends with most everyone who frequents Tigerbolt, including such people who have previously posted in this thread as DJ Fluck, Clark, Katie, Chelly, Wetzel, Joe and Amy Ross, Melissa (yearbook50), Kristina, M. Krass, Bill (heh, duh).... the list goes on, and I think that covers most of the political spectrum (and in the case of Libertarians, even some who aren't on the spectrum). I'm an agnostic/atheist (depends on my mood ), and a good majority of the above-mentioned people practice a religion, of some sort. I would really like to be able to think of myself as an accepting and open-minded person, but I don't particularly like making such judgments about myself, I'll leave that to all of you.

As for Paul Wellstone, himself, my mother was responsible for donating more than $4500 to his campaign, and we live half the country away (California). He was a great senator. One of the few who cared about the people whom he served, and stood up for what he believed in. I know about this very well, sadly, because he was the only senator (republican OR democrat, because both sides are owned by major banking companies) who was openly against the Bankruptcy Reform Bill. The whole bankruptcy issue is entirely off-topic, so I'll not get into it.

As for the memorial itself, I agree that it did become a political rally, but I don't think you could really eulogize Paul Wellstone in any proper manner without promoting the Democratic Party.

Oh well, Jesse Ventura might appoint a casual citizen, now, "just for the novelty."