The Party of Peace

Whew! So both Hillary and Bill Clinton have officially endorsed Barack Obama. I'm not terribly surprised that they did this. If they didn't, they'd stink so badly in the nostrils of most Democrats, from here on out, that both Bill's legacy and Hillary's political future would be ruined.

It was the way they both did it that gladdens my heart.

Both of the Clintons showed a lot of class. It must have been especially difficult for Hillary to ask her supporters if they were in it simply for her, or for the people who so deeply need the Democratic Party to begin once again living up to its promise. That took gumption, and in my opinion it went above and beyond simply tossing Obama her endorsement.

Any remaining PUMA's are either Republican plants (some of whom are probably actually on the GOP payroll), racists who wouldn't vote for a Black man if Jesus Christ came back as one, or just very troubled and screwed-up people. It's not about Hillary anymore; it's about them.

Back to the Democratic Party's promise. Once upon a time, they were the Party of Peace. They never unanimously stood for it; not only were there quite a few brave and principled souls who opposed the Vietnam War, for example, but quite a number who supported it. Democratic Presidents got us tangled up in that mess to begin with, and it took a Republican to finally get us out. But even though a number of Dems also rah-rah-ed the current boondoggle in Iraq (Hillary among them), it is almost solely Democrats who are standing against it.

By and large, particularly in recent decades, progressive Democrats -- REAL Democrats -- have at least given lip-service to the principle of peace. And they can do nothing to bring about an end to the disastrous conflict in Iraq if they can't even keep the peace within their own party.

The whole Barack-versus-Hillary battle in the primary was buffoonish and bizarre. It made every Democrat in the country look ridiculous. It was largely Hillary's fault, which is why she lost the nomination. There were -- thank God -- enough real Democrats willing to stand up and support a decent, godly candidate genuinely dedicated to peace, both in the Party and in the world.

I'm glad to see the resurgence of people of faith in Democratic Party politics. It had a lot to do with the nomination of a genuinely devout, Christian candidate this time around. And those of us in the Party with strong religious convictions need to continue to be a driving force for party unity, as well as for non-military solutions to global conflicts. It is up to us. If we don't do it, then no one else will.

"Centrists" sell their souls to the Devil just for temporary political gains. We need to keep the Party's new, resurgent progressive edge razor-sharp. Obama, too, tends to drift to the "center" (and let's not mealy-mouth about this; it is really to the Right) when he fears that the Left isn't strong enough to support him. Let's show him that the "centrist" naysayers are wrong.

It is no coincidence that we sunk into this "centrist" mess at a time when Democrats were afraid to talk about faith, whereas now that we're standing up more boldly for our religious convictions, the progressive wing of the Party is again emerging. Those two phenomena go hand-in-hand.

Let us, again and as never before, truly be the Party of Peace -- both at home and abroad. It all begins with how we treat each other.