For the first time in their sheltered and insular lives, Washington
Post readers get a peek at the Tea Parties' forum, FreedomWorks...
What a lot of comments I was goaded into posting. Well...I used to know
these people, or people like them. I've sat beside them on the Metro, dated
them, rented rooms in group houses with them. The amazing thing is that they're
not nearly as crass in real life as some of them sound when they're writing
about the ideological enemies they don't know on the'Net. They read. They bathe.
They're easy to talk or work or dance with. If they were your housemates many of
them would never wipe their hands on your towel. Most of them have travelled
across state lines (other than D.C./Virginia/Maryland), some have lived in
foreign countries, many have foreign-born friends, and some even speak a foreign
language. And they think they know something about the plain people of even
these United States, even of other countries. And they are so wrong.
I want to see more of them here. Commenting. Contributing. Filling in the gaps in their extensive, but incomplete, educations.
Most of the active participants in this web site may find them...I think
"foreign" is the right word. I think a lot of people who've always lived in
McLean, Virginia, would look, sound, and feel foreign in Gate City, Virginia. I
think one reason why people who are still in the Democratic Party aren't
contributing more to this web site, apart from Mark Warner's apparently ongoing
software issues, is that they're not used to dealing with both the Old
Left and the Old Right; that's an experience surprisingly few Americans
have shared with me. And I think it's a pity and a shame.
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