Real Progressives and Conservatives Get Along

By Thomas Gangale
San Francisco Chronicle
24 February 24, 2008

Bill Brock is retired from politics these days, but he used to be a U.S. senator, U.S. secretary of labor, Republican National Committee chair and a few other things. His Wikipedia biography states that "while in the Senate, Brock was a darling of the conservative movement." A few months ago, Bill asked me, "How can you be a serious Democrat and still make so much sense?"

My response was rather flippant: "Actually, before I was a Democrat, I was a Republican. I started out smart, and got smarter, so much so that now I am such a smart a-, that what else could I be but a Democrat?"

But really, Bill deserved a better answer than that. The fact is that in my experience, a lot of Democrats are depressingly dumb. Some of my less-critical-thinking colleagues on a Democratic Party committee suspect me of being a closet Republican, some because I was a military officer and still read Sun Tzu, some because I've admitted to talking to Republicans (and they were absolutely scandalized when I went to a county Republican central committee meeting), and yes, maybe because I make sense. God knows some of them don't. One of my colleagues confided, "Yes, I've been told you are a spy, underground Republican, nuclear something, etc., etc."

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