Healing

Michael Cudahy has a new column up ("Just Say No"):

President Dwight Eisenhower once said, "I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone."

It is clear that President Bush and his chief political advisor Karl Rove either paid no attention to, or have no respect for, one of the great Republican presidents of the last century. Worse they seem to lack any comprehension of the legacy their cynical political policies of fear and division will have on our country.

I have grown tired of my family and friends being scared by the exploitive and calculated rhetoric being employed by the current Republican administration in Washington. It is embarrassing to traditional Republicans who honor and respect the wisdom of their party's visionary leaders like Presidents Eisenhower and Theodore Roosevelt, and it is inflicting great pain on the people of the United States.

Cudahy goes on to urge Republicans to do what Dean is urging Democrats to do: take their party back. We should support these Republican insurgents in their efforts. This country needs a balanced political system with healthy parties on both sides of the debate. Both of the parties are sick right now and are in desperate need of some healing.