Good Advice For Us at DU from Senator Paul Simon

[democrat2thecore]

The late Senator from Illinois, Paul Simon, wrote a little book in the last year of his life called, Fifty-Two Simple Ways To Make A Difference. I scanned this one piece called "Learn To Respect The Views Of Others." I thought during this time of healing at DU and as we head into the general election campaign - it was worthy to post. I loved Paul Simon. As an aside, he was a huge fan of Barack Obama and even wrote of him in one of his books about the "bright young star in the Illinois legislature."

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I worked on Paul Simon's Presidential campaign in '88

He was a great senator and a great man--helped a lot of folks without fanfare. Thanks for posting some of his words of wisdom.

[democrat2thecore]

6. I still have brochures from his campaign. He was a GREAT man! -nt

[Tinksrival]

16. Great man! This thread needs a Paul Simon pic.

Very recognizable man.

[democrat2thecore]

18. THANK YOU! Here's another...

[Hawkeye-X]

27. Yeah, I liked him too.

And I keep confusing him with Paul Tsongas of MA...

[SoxFan]

33. I worked for both of them!

I guess I have a thing for squeaky-clean senators named Paul!

[blondeatlast]

2. I loved Senator Simon and respect him very much. That being said, I can't respect obvious RW

talking points being floated on this board out of "concern"--and there's a LOT of that lately.

I respect the opinions of those posting on conservative boards enough to give them their space; I would hope that they would do the same here--but they don't.

I reserve the right to get furious about it. No apologies to "those I might have offended" or anyone else, for that matter.

Rant off.

[democrat2thecore]

3. Oh, I agree! But, it's HOW we disagree

I just read a post where out-of-nowhere a poster wrote "Fuck You!" to someone simply because he disagreed. It's that kind of lack of civility that I was posting about. As Paul Simon said, "Disagree without being disagreeable." In all honesty though, I'm afraid we have entered a new generation that has only known internet flame wars and civility is seen as a sign of weakness. I guess that's why I posted this.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. I have no respect for John McCain voters.

Bigots and imbeciles. The lot of them.

Fuck 'em.

[democrat2thecore]

5. "The lot of them" - that's not rational. People CAN disagree w/out the other being evil. -nt

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. Certainly.

Disagreeing with me is fine. Voting for John McCain is something else entirely.

[Indenturedebtor]

9. Alot of them are just ignorant. They want the same things we do

They just don't know how to get there.

If all Puke voters were that bad, then there wouldn't be so much money poured into disinforming the public.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. I agree. A lot are ignorant.

Some are very greedy and have something to gain.

The thing is, if you're old enough to vote, you're old enough to know better.

[Indenturedebtor]

12. True and I think they would if the information was being shared properly

People have been indoctrinated from birth with RW nonsense. Their whole mental framework of how the world works has been shaped by corporo-facists.

[knixphan]

23. agreed

I got two of 'em as pet projects right now... Giving them monthly injections of Hartmann...

[OwnedByFerrets]

31. If you are "just" ignorant

after almost 8 yrs of this shit, that excludes you from being able to use that excuse anymore.

www.wearableartnow.com

[TexasObserver]

7. I always liked Paul, in spite of the bow tie. Floyd Fithian used to be his Chief of Staff.

I think it was '84 when I got involved in Paul's first run for the senate. I was mainly working US senate races in those days. In 84 the DSCC had a former congressman from Indiana named Floyd Fithian, whom I worked with on some races. One of the races was Simon's. When Simon won, he named Floyd his chief of staff. Simon and Fithian were both good guys, solid Democrats.

Paul always talked too slow for me, but I liked the guy.

[democrat2thecore]

14. LOVED that bow tie (button inside)

Remember this?



Love it!

[TexasObserver]

15. Remember how great Al Franken was as Simon in 1988?

"Is it the BOW-TIE?!!"

[democrat2thecore]

17. great stuff!

[kath]

29. heh, I see you've changed your avatar.

Molly Ivins gives way to the Church Lady.
Very appropriate lately, with all the holier-than-thous coming out of the woodwork.

Oh, man, Franken was so funny on SNL. I loved him as the One-Man Mobile Uplink Unit. Freakin' hilarious.

[SoxFan]

34. David Axelrod worked for him, too

As did I, as a lowly press aide in the New Hampshire state headquarters.

I still have my bow tie lapel pin.

[democrat2thecore]

35. Yes! Axelrod ran his Senate campaigns as well -nt

[H2O Man]

10. Very good.

He wrote a number of good books. My favorite was "Winners and Losers: The 1988 Race for the Presidency."

[woolldog]

13. Beautiful post. Thank you.

K&R

[jgraz]

19. I respect people who hold respectable views

I don't respect Holocaust deniers, global warming deniers, fundamentalists or Republicans.

To paraphrase Eli Wiesel: 20 years ago, politicians could pretend they were dealing with honest disagreements between gentlemen. Today, we're dealing with monsters.

[democrat2thecore]

20. Sorry - that's a tough row to hoe

"I don't respect Holocaust deniers, global warming deniers, fundamentalists or Republicans."

Putting those who deny the Holocaust in the same boat as garden variety Republicans? You're right back to you not respecting anybody who doesn't agree with you! That attitude has caused untold millions in deaths whether by religion, the Holocaust itself, the Gulags, Pinochet, on and on. I'll take Senator Simon's approach any day over that kind of black and white thinking. The world is, in fact, many shades of grey.

[jgraz]

21. You go ahead, if that makes you feel better.

The Republicans will laugh at you as they vote another mass murderer into office.

[NC_Nurse]

22. Great post. I loved Paul Simon, supported him for Pres too.

[musicblind]

24. Very good. I read every word in your scan. Thank you so much for sharing that.

I even saved it to my computer for future reference. :hug:

[highplainsdem]

25. Thank you! Great post about a great man! K & R

[highplainsdem]

26. "The zealous haters are a small but dangerous band who exist in every faith group."

And in too many political groups, too, and this is why Paul Simon's advice is so important here.

We weaken ourselves when we hate. We become irrational when we hate. And our actions and words, when we hate, too often make us the mirror image of what we say we hate.

When we hate, we demonize those we disagree with. We blind ourselves to their concerns and anything of value in what they may be saying. And by doing that, we make it impossible to communicate with them and get them to understand how we feel.

And, even worse, we end up looking every bit as scary, to people whose views aren't as extreme, as those whose views we're objecting to.

This is something I believe Obama, Edwards and Gore have been trying to get across in this campaign, both with Obama and Edwards asking Obama supporters not to boo Hillary Clinton, and with Gore telling us, at the same time he endorsed Obama, that we should "remember our obligation to honor the highest values of our democracy and conduct this campaign in a spirit of respect for the Republican nominee."

This is crucial, in an election where moderates and independents will decide who wins the GE. These are people outside the ideological echo chamber, people who will be turned off by the booing and intolerance.

And even if we didn't have to worry about this election, we need to be wary of hatred.

Hatred and intolerance lead to authoritarianism and finally totalitarianism, whether on the left or the right.

Most of us here at DU consider ourselves liberal.

And this is part of the classic definition of liberal: "tolerant of views differing from one's own; broad-minded."

You can be leftwing and intolerant, but you can't be liberal and intolerant.

Many years ago I studied debate and competed in debate teams. One thing you learn quickly in debate is that there are arguments to be made -- rational arguments, cogent arguments -- on both sides of almost any issue.

As liberals, we've already made some basic choices about which arguments on the issues are more important to us.

As supporters of different candidates in this primary, we also made choices as to which issues and which approaches to issues, and which character traits and backgrounds, were most important to us.

But we need to be aware that other people can disagree without their being stupid or evil.

I think I can guarantee everyone here that even their heroes, their favorite politicians, had SOME views that they didn't agree with. If your favored candidate in the primary was a senator, it's a safe bet they cast at least some votes you didn't agree with.

We need to realize that in a complex world with complex problems for which we've come up with a lot of alternate solutions -- none of those solutions perfect -- we are NOT going to agree all of the time.

And when we refuse to recognize that there can be honest disagreement -- when we demonize and belittle those who disagree, whether as heretics or evil or stupid -- we make it that much harder to come up with solutions, because we've ended the dialogue ourselves.

Even when our opponents are haters, we can't win by hating them and mirroring their narrow-mindedness.

The antitheses of hate and intolerance are love and tolerance, NOT hate and intolerance from a different direction.

Paul Simon understood that. Obama and Edwards and Gore and the Clintons and other Democratic leaders understand that. And we need to understand it, too.

[democrat2thecore]

28. Wow. Very well said. Excellent post. -nt

[cbayer]

32. This should really be a stand-alone OP

I was just thinking about this whole issue and how we would benefit from addressing it. The hostility, lack of civility and sometimes outright hatred are destructive and inhibit us from reaching our goals. It is the antithesis of what I believe the Democratic party in general and liberals in particular represent. I object to it in our intra-party squabbles and also when it comes to how we talk about the real opponents. The hypocrisy of using the same destructive tactics against our Republican opponents that we decry whenever they use them makes us look weak and immature.

Obama does not engage in these tactics, as far as I can see. I hope that we will all strive to follow his example.

[highplainsdem]

30. Kicking

:kick: