"It's a very nuanced strategy"

Just as I was contemplating how troubled I am by the rude and omni-brutal tone of every current American political conversation (including the various ones taking place on our side), I had a pleasant experience reading this:

Mainly, I am happy the word "nuanced" is associated with a political movement, and I am intrigued by the forthrightness necessary to assert such heresy on cable news...

GP Presidential nominee David Cobb, on Nader and political strategy, answering the decidedly un-nuanced questions of CNN's Judy Woodfruff:

COBB: Well, I have nothing but absolute respect and admiration for Ralph Nader. As I've said many times, I'm a lawyer because of Atticus Finch and Ralph Nader.
Ralph Nader and I both absolutely agree on the need to break out of this corporate-controlled politics and the corporate-controlled nature of both the Democratic and the Republican Parties.
But, Judy, Ralph and I have a disagreement on the best way to do that. In this election cycle Ralph is running an independent campaign. It's his right to do that. And I think it's shameful that all the shenanigans are taking place to prevent Ralph Nader from being on the ballot as an independent. But myself and the Green Party are committed to building an independent political force to challenge the Democrats and the Republicans because there has to be an opposition party that will continue after the November election no matter who wins.
[...]
You know, Judy, what I've said is, I want to run a strong, aggressive and smart campaign that will both grow the Green Party and culminate with George W. Bush out of the White House. It's a very nuanced strategy. But it's one that I think is in the best interest of the country and it's in the best interest of the Green Party.
[...]
And the truth of the matter is, that John Kerry voted for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. John Kerry voted for the Patriot Act. John Kerry voted for NAFTA. John Kerry opposes single payer universal health care. John Kerry opposes raising the minimum wage to a living wage. I'm going to be willing to criticize John Kerry on taking positions that progressives cannot support, and that progressives would like to see enacted. That's the reason so many more progressives at the grassroots level are actually joining the Green Party.
At the same time, I'm going to acknowledge the truth of the matter that as bad as John Kerry is on all these issues, George W. Bush is qualitatively worse. The difference between John Kerry and George W. Bush may be nearly incremental, but it is not inconsequential. I trust the voters to hear the truth, and make up their own minds.

And on his own class identity:

I grew up in grinding poverty in San Leon, Texas. I've washed dishes. I've been a construction worker. I'm a genuine working class person who lived the American dream. You know, Greens are ordinary people trying to do something extraordinary which is to build a genuine movement that will take our country back from the corporate hooligans who have literally hijacked it.

Read the entire piece, and see if you feel that same kind of...well, refreshed feeling. Of clarity, honesty, humility. Traits that may not score you points with the sparts (or at a bar for that matter), but which, in fact, are appeals to a universal civility and respect unseen in the fallout from the Nader-GP debacle. Even Nader's patient re-explanations of his relationship to the two-party system seem like so much double-talk in comparison.

Woodruff's questions betrayed her desire to stay on scandal. But David, Ralph is mad! He's mad at you, David!

But David Cobb strikes me as a smart, down-to-earth, honest activist. It must be impossible not to have enemies in the Green Party, and surely people's competing representations will come to the surface. More troubling, many among the left will get sucked into their own unique brand of personal attacks and waste valuable energy that could be spent building new parties AND defeating the worst president since Hoover. At the risk of sounding like the suede denim secret police, we ought to try and emulate Cobb's civility, at least to each other, and maybe even to our adversaries, since it's always nicer to beat them with a smile on your face.

Debate Season Never Really Ends, Say Experts

Come next week, I may not be posting with the frenzy I've had as of late. About 85 high school students from ten states will attend the Wyoming Forensics Institute, sharpening their skills in team debate, lincoln-douglas (1-on-1) debate, and other competitive speech events. A week after they leave, over 150 college students and instructors will convene on Laramie for the fifth annual Wyoming Debate Cooperative, a non-profit collective for competitive debaters in NDT/CEDA and NPDA debate. These projects are busier and longer than anything we do during the regular school year. I imagine blogging will be a refreshing, but rare distraction.