Markos Moulitsas Zuniga

Originally posted on Citizen Orange

Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin'

Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.
    - Lyrics

I never thought I'd see the day when I could safely say that the pollsters, the pundits, and the establishment democrat bloggers would turn toward the light migrant justice.  That day has come and it only affirms one of the Doctor Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.'s most hopeful themes.

The arc of the
moral universe is long but it bends toward justice
    - Doctor Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

After Republicans failed with their anti-migrant rhetoric in Virginia, the powers that be have begun to sing a different tune.  Duke at Migra Matters was the first to pick up on how the tone has changed.  This is a Washington Post article before the results were in:

Never say she doesn't try; Hillary Clinton is currently running ads on Daily Kos, in an effort, presumably, to have a conversation with that community. Or, more precisely, to have a conversation at that community.

Similar ads are running on MyDD, calling on the blog's readers to stand with Hillary as she does something or other calculated not to offend anyone.

The problem with the ads is simple: they're completely lacking in empowerment for the user. If you click through, you land on a screen that allows you to do only one thing: sign up with your email (and all other fundraising-enabling info) to 'stand with Hillary' as she makes the completely uncontroversial demand for Abu Gonzalez to resign. It's basic, simple, textbook email capture.

Which is all fine and dandy, but some people expect more from a conversation than being talked at and being set up for the next fundraising pitch. In fact, that's kind of the whole point of the Progressive blogosphere - it's two-way, not one-way. Too bad Hillary just does not get that.

In the normal course of events, I don't discuss religion much; but there's cause today to do so. Our house troll, Francis Holland, has made the remarkable discovery that the Progressive movement hates not merely Hillary Clinton (though that would be something of an overstatement), but God Himself. I must disagree with him on that – Francis arguments, such as they are, can be found here and here - and not merely because I think Francis' eschatalogy of Hillary is getting to be a bit grating, not to mention theologically unsound. I'm reasonably certain that God doesn't vote in our primaries, in part because God is English and isn't entitled to do so; meanwhile, those who think Hillary Clinton is the Messiah in a pantsuit, I mean, come on, people. No matter how much one may or may not support her: the election of any one individual is not going to make pretty pink ponies fly in the sky, or magically undo all that is bad in the world. Would that it were so, but it's not - and it's definitely not going to happen with Hillary.

But first, allow me to speak briefly about me. My religious background is in the liberal Catholicism of Western Europe. Catholicism, take it from me, is properly understood a wonderful thing (I'm just going to gloss over that Inquisition business for the sake of this argument). We've managed to weave, over the last two millennia, a gorgeous tapestry of rituals, architecture, folkways, music, literature, theology, figural and painted art, that is in sum and at the very least aesthetically pleasing. Western European Catholicism gave rise, among other notable refinements to the human condition, to the Social Gospel, which maintains that the measure of our love of God is our treatment of the outcast, the dispossessed, the despised, and whether we press our lawful governments to better their lot. Under Catholic theology, not paying your laborers a fair wage – not merely what you consider fair, but what is fair – is defined as a Sin that Cries Unto Heaven For Vengeance; as they say, people go to hell for that, maybe a doctrine that Catholic Bush appointees to the NLRB should take note of.

Whether one buys the entire gilt-encrusted kit and caboodle is of course another question entirely. For myself, personally, I've decided that I'm not equipped to know whether or not there actually is a God, and that to claim otherwise would be presumptuous. We are all small, simple – some more so, some less, eh Francis? – humans shuffling merrily about on this mortal coil, making clumsy stabs, in the dark, at the Unknowable. There has to be an element of uncertainty in any kind of transcendental belief, however, an uncertainty that doesn't lend itself to either full-fledged belief or its mirror parallel, atheism. Myself, I'm humble enough, and patient enough, to trust that if there is an answer to the question, I'll find out one day; and if not, no harm done, no fair, no foul. There's value in acceptance of uncertainty, and meanwhile, I can enjoy a good Requiem when the mood strikes me, not to mention ignore some of the ideas floating around in the Church that are a tad less appetizing.

So that's where I'm coming from. Now, to Francis. That's below the fold.