Howard Dean "Reframes the values debate" & Misses the Way.

This story from the Lawrence Journal World, LJWorld.com : Dean roars into town shows the man from Vermont upping the anti-. "And concluding his backyard speech with a litany of Democratic values, he added: 'This is a struggle of good and evil. And we're the good.' " Well blow me down. Does he really want to go there? If all us 'others' are evil, who are those guys in Iraq eviscerating the innocent with exploding Datsuns? Put this man in dirty clothes, spritz him with cheap whiskey, wait three days for odor and beard, stand him on a small box, let him say these things and the white suits would be called. Slap a tinfoil conehat on him labelled Chairman, DNC and he "...gives me a hope there's a good future ahead of us...said Micheline Burger, who joined nearly 1,000 others...to hear Dean." And this: "The issue is not abortion, Dean told the closed-door (i.e.-backyard) fund-raiser. The issue is whether women can make up their own mind instead of some right-wing pastor, some right-wing politician telling them what to do." You can't tell US! what to do, you, you, you God types! Nyah! Nyah! Nyah! Stick a thumb in the eye of Christians, jam together all Evangelicals, Catholics, et. al. Now there's a strategy to "...attract moderate Republicans...Moderate Republicans can't stand these people (conservatives), because they're intolerant. They don't think tolerance is a virtue," Dean said, adding: "I'm not going to have these right-wingers throw away our right to be tolerant." Tolerance is not a "right". Tolerance is not a virtue. And Howard Dean, or anyone else so misusing the word is wrong. These are the Virtues: Humility, Generosity, Love and Kindness. (Try kindness Mr. Dean). And Self control. And Faith and Temperance. And, lastly, Zeal. Zeal, ardent desire for God. "It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way. " - Proverbs 19:2. St. Howard the Zealous? On a mission to "claim the high ground" from "the intolerant"? Because of what they think? Same link, " Zeal, according to the dictionary is an ardent interest or desire. It doesn't say what the object of the desire is. But the virtue of Zeal only has God as the object. Anything else is a waste, or even dangerous, because we can make gods of lesser things, and this nearly always ends in disaster. This is the case for zealots: they have created some idea and then pursue this shadow of themselves fanatically. Spiritually, the worst thing for a human being is to create a "God-image" in their head and then pursue it madly like a dog chasing its tail. It is an excuse for the worst crimes and atrocities, with an apparently clear conscience. Once a false God has been created in the mind, the human vices are amplified and rationalized, with the worst possible results: evil is done but God is blamed." Or those evil, intolerant conservatives are blamed, eh Howard? Howard Dean wants the Democrats to "...reframe the values debate, and claim the high ground." Better they put down those rhetorical hammers, and pick up a virtue or two.