Thursday Night Democratic Roundup

“The debate about whether or not climate change is a man-made disaster is over. The question now is what we do about it. … We know that transportation fuels account for a third of America’s global warming pollution. And we know there are fuels available that emit less carbon-dioxide into the atmosphere – fuels like biodiesel and ethanol. To create a mass market for these fuels and ensure they’ll be used more widely, this standard will require that fuel sold in the U.S. contain 5 percent less carbon by 2015 and 10 percent less carbon by 2020.”

Obama has also gotten flack for backing off his support of clean coal in the speech.

“The facts that have brought us to this fateful vote are not in doubt. In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile-delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort and sanctuary to terrorists, including al-Qaida members.”

I have bitched and moaned for years about the lack of tolerance in the elitist wing of the Democratic Party, or what I refer to as the “Metropolitan Opera Wing”. These are the people who talk of tolerance but the only true tolerance they ever exhibit is for their own pseudo-intellectual arrogance. …

I am certain I will get personally attacked for this next statement, but in all honesty, I don’t care what the “Metropolitan Wing” of my party thinks. I don’t like them. The damage the pseudo-intellectuals have done to my party by abandoning tolerance, combined with their erroneous stereotyping of my people and culture, is something that brings out my incivility. In his column, Joe said, “…the smart stuff is being drowned out by a fierce, bullying, often witless tone of intolerance that has overtaken the left-wing sector of the blogosphere.” Amen. I must add that this same intellectual arrogance and intolerance overtook the party years ago, and for that very reason, my people in rural America left the tent.

This has led to some fierce reactions on the blogosphere. A follow up post by Saunders was not well-received either.
There’s a good write up of the controversy here. To make a long story relatively short, I think this could end up hurting Edwards in a very serious way, since netroots was the one national base he previously could lean on. It should be interesting, though, how the left wing and the center of the party (and the urban and rural parts of the party as well) interact as the campaign rolls on, especially once the primaries are over. A lot what some on the left feel is obvious - such as thre relative lack of importance of religion, gay marriage, and gun control - are things that conservative and rural Democrats may disagree with. These groups need to have a smooth coalition in order for any hope to remain for Democrats in 2008. Sniping back and forth would have to be considered a worrying trend for any Democrat out there, and something to take advantage of for Republicans.

GRAVEL: The most serious domestic problem we have is our system of taxation, which is unfair to the average American and really, in particular, does damage to the poor. And what we have to have is a system where the people know it’s fair, that it has total transparency. The only way we can turn this country around is by having a revenue system wherein the people can stop what they’re doing… they spend more than they earn. We cannot afford to do that, we’re courting disaster. So, if you turn around and give them an incentive to save, not to spend, which is what a national sales tax does, then we can begin to turn around the fundamentals of our country.