Mary wrote: > I guess "ideology" is in the eye of the beholder. I could turn this around > and say that, in many cases, it seems that Democrats are less inclined to > identify with a particular philosophy or ideology, which I perceive is more a > motivation for Republicans, but rather, out of practical concerns involving > the environment, reproductive rights, worker safety and civil liberties, and > civil rights.
> The parallelism simply struck me as a little odd. What makes one set of > "practical concerns" an ideology, and the other, not? Hmmm, I'll try to explain it from my own personal perspective. I've watched the progressive strides in environmental controls, reproductive rights worker safety and civil rights all proceed over my lifetime of 40+ years. To me the goals worked toward have been accomplished. The laws and enforcements are well in place. So I think "check" - that one is resolved now. Done deal. Now, what's next? But when I hear political platforms still being based on these issues year after year like NOTHING has ever been done or resolved, I shake my head in wonderment and think are there not other issues we should be looking out now? That is where I perceive that some people are more caught up in an ideology rather and addressing other pressing issues, real time. Again being from California, I have a perspective and experience that differs from some in other parts of the country. California is the most overladen and regulated with laws upon laws into redundancy on these issues, that it just seems a bit crazy, not to mention inefficient, to me for people still to be so focused on them. Kakki
