A Historic Snafu In Need Of Revisiting - Cheney/Edwards VP Debate

This was my second post at citizenschallenge.blogspot and harks back to another monumental Democratic Party failure to appreciate the moment and capture its important opportunity.  Though I imagine most aren't even aware of it.  I reposting this for the young bloods who are sick of their DNC elders and the disconnected mistakes that they seem incapable of learning from.  I encourage you move on and up within the DNC, the elders will oppose you, but exert yourselves, speak up, the DNC and America needs you to step up and deal with our world as it is.

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A historic snafu in need of revisiting
CitizensChallenge, August, 2, 2008

Back in 2004, during the Vice Presidencial debates, the question of the moment was: America's Right to "Go It Alone." Cheney proclaimed: "America will not allow anyone veto power!" Senator Edwards (and by extension the Democratic Party) could respond no better than to mumble meaningless platitudes.

Why couldn't Senator Edwards invoke the words of our United States Declaration of Independence? The last line of the first paragraph reads: "... a decent Respect to the Opinion of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to Separation."

Our Declaration of Independence and its signers granted no one veto power, however they did recognize a higher arbiter of correctness and a requirement that they be able to justify their actions in the eyes of the world!

Why couldn't the Democrat articulate that?

Why have we so easily misplaced our respect for the rest of mankind?

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Consider a historic inspiration worth recalling

Our Founding Fathers were all men of passionate, deeply held and defensible beliefs.

Yet, each one knew they needed the knowledge and experiences of their ideological opponents.

They allowed themselves the luxury of respecting their opponents and they appreciated that there was something to be learned from most everyone.

They had the humility to understand that no one of them held absolute insight.

And they had the integrity to be able to alter perspectives when new information justified it.

Shouldn't all of us reacquaint ourselves with this principle?