All the silliness, none of the shrieking

Senator Kerry's speech yesterday was amazing. As I've thought about it, it struck me as sort of a spiritual equivalent to Al Gore's "Digital Brownshirts" silliness.

It's been well documented that Al is only barely in touch with the stately-seeming Vice President of the 1990's these days and is given to fits of shrieking in public. Senator Kerry of course retains a greater sense of decorum but is wont to say some equally silly things, as he did here.

Forces outside the mainstream now seem to effortlessly push Republican leaders toward conduct that the American people really don't want in their elected leaders... injecting religion into debates about public policy where it doesn't apply.

Perhaps I'm jumping ahead, but I can't help thinking that we're one short, quick step away from hearing the "T"-word again; theocracy! Which is of course beyond ridiculous. Just as a quick look around at the vigorous nature of political debate in the US exposes the silly notion of Digital Brownshirts, so a quick look around at the strict separation between things religious and things governmental, as must be pointed out, by forces most closely represented by the Senator's own party exposes the absurdity of Kerry's claim(s).

As I noted the other day, repeatedly insulting people of faith is political folly. Every time a Senator Kerry or Reid or any other of these people-of-faith-who-don't-live-like-it impugn the good-faith efforts of fellow citizens, they sully the process. It is more easily dismissed as silliness when it comes in the form of a bearded, screaming wild-man, but it is no less silly when delivered in the most gentlemanly way. It's still all the same kind of silliness just with none of the shrieking.