Trickling away

Liquid alert for Fixer only.

Since it's in my contract that I have to read Fixer's links, occasionally I do. This time, I'm glad I did. This jewel from My Left Wing:

Freedom, especially freedom of speech, is never lost in one big Hollywood moment, instead it trickles away, a grain of sand at a time until we suddenly find the vessel of freedom empty. Joe McCarthy knew this as he set about methodically picking away at individuals who were the 1950s equivalent to Amanda Marcotte, ruining their lives--in some cases forever.

Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan have been the victims of a hate campaign as vicious as any Joe McCarthy conducted. They will survive this because they are survivors, but the wounds are deep. If John Edwards will not speak out against this as the Minnesota Democrats failed to defend Rick Kahn, then he may well have derailed his presidential train.

I am sorry for John Edwards, sorry for the Democratic Party and most sorry that as much as I keep hoping the Party will change it seems to keep shooting itself in the foot. There are too many bullets there already, which may be why the party keeps limping along.

I'm reminded of the campfire scene in Easy Rider where Captain America complains to Jack Nicholson's character about the treatment they receive from the citizenry just for exercising their Freedom, to which the reply is words to the effect of, "Freedom? They're scared to death of Freedom."