beachmom, see this??? Andrew Sullivan: Vote Dem or Abstain

[whometense]

http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/10/vote_dem_or_abs.html

That's my advice, unless you have a truly stellar Republican candidate in your district or state.

[beachmom]

1. Yeah -- he's been saying that for a while and for purist reasons

He doesn't think the GOP stands for conservative ideals anymore, so, you know, "throw the bums out". I disagree with Sully on many things (like Kerry), but I enjoy reading his blog more than Kos's stupid posts. It's now two elections in a row where he's been on our side; it's just important to note that he'll never be a Democrat for ideological reasons. He also has personal stuff on his blog sometimes, so I admit that I enjoy the '80s videos, his dogs, and his frank talk about being gay and HIV positive. Did I mention he HATES George Allen?

Still, I don't trust him on Kerry, and I have to always remember that.

[whometense]

2. Right.

His only point in promoting dems anyway is to teach conservatives a lesson so they come back to what he thinks they should stand for.

I have no idea what - if ANY - clout he has. But I'll take it. While not trusting him one bit. ;-)

[beachmom]

3. He has about zero clout among conservatives, but his blog

does have a large readership -- I think 100K a day -- and these people are swing voters, informed swing voters. Some are conservative but disenchanted with the Christianist GOP party, others are liberal but maybe supported the Iraq War, still others are liberals like me who were against the war, but want to read some honest assessments of the conduct of the war which I think Andrew has been good at delivering. And he writes for Time magazine, of course, among other MSM outlets, so here's hoping that "vote Democratic or stay home" becomes a full essay read by even more people.

On the "conservative" ideals Andrew holds dear, a lot of them sound like liberal values to me. Like no torture, live and let live in reference to people's privacy, checks and balances are vital with the branches of government, pay as you go instead of record deficits, there should always be a separation of church and state, be honest about the war, and so on. Even Andrew's support for the war doesn't mean he is a neocon -- he's hemming and hawing about Iran, not sure what to do about it, and is certainly against a war there with Bush as president. It is in economic issues where there is complete irreconciliable differences between his views and the liberal's. OTOH, other than healthcare, I don't see our party arguing for a ton of new government programs -- in that sense the Democratic party has moderated.