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Politics

Across The River

11.20.07 | Comment?

As a life-long Democrat who has felt in recent years as if his party has moved away from him, not the other way ’round, I currently find my electoral choices greatly curtailed.  I have far too many policy differences to switch allegiance to the GOP, and yet the candidates offered to me by the Dems don’t represent me on the fundamental issue of the war.  That’s fine; I believe they came to their positions honestly and thoughtfully, as I have mine.  If there’s no one I can vote for without feeling a sense of moral compromise, well, that’s not addressed anywhere I’ve seen in the Constitution.

Still, when a candidate from a nearby congressional district seems to better fit one’s political leanings (thought not, of course, in all particulars), one wistfully, but not seriously, entertains notions of crossing a river to move to said district.  I’ve written before of Rep. Brian Baird’s battering by the anti-war Left.  Here is more on the man from today’s Oregonian

Baird has never received as much national attention as he did last August, when he announced his opposition to immediate withdrawal from Iraq.

Baird was promptly criticized in his own party, and praised by Republicans. The southwest Washington Democrat initially had voted against the war.

Now, Baird notes progress in Iraq. “Each month has been progressively better,” he said.

He believes troop levels can be substantially reduced beginning next year, but some presence will be needed in the following years. He said he is troubled by the inability of some people to consider the consequences of withdrawing too quickly.

While Baird stands nearly alone among House Democrats on this issue, he said overall momentum in Congress has shifted “toward keeping the increased number of troops on the ground through early next year, “followed by a gradual redeployment.

Baird noted that in 2002, the Bush administration was criticized for having “suppressed any contradictory opinions or evidence prior to going in” to Iraq.

“To some degree that’s happening on the left right now,” he said. “And just as it was a mistake for the Bush administration to do it, and it led to bad policy decisions, I think it’s a mistake for it to happen on the left. We need to have a diversity of voices.”

Emphasis mine, naturally.  Anyway, this is not a premature post talking of victory; things could quickly go rotten again and there’s been too much pain and death for triumphalism (by whichever side) to be tolerated. 

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