A member of Moveon.org has written me a letter.  I hereby publish it in full for your edification: 

Just as you read Daily Kos, I read Townhall, NRO, Weekly Standard, InstaPundit and bunch of others. So I felt compelled to respond to your characterization of MoveOn.org, of which I am a member and contributed to that highly effective NYT ad.

This is a polite email, so not to worry. But I need to point out that while the Dems may have MoveOn, the Repubs have Bill O'Reilly, Rush, Michael Savage, Sean, Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck etc. etc. And these folks are all over the broadcast media spewing vial, and completely false, characterizations of anyone who dares question the judgment of our President. It's War, War, Glorious War 24/7. When did you last see someone from MoveOn interviewed on the broadcast media? This is really the problem. We have no voice, so we have to resort to shock tactics to have our voices heard.

If you were to actually meet people from MoveOn, you would find a cross-section of American society. Ordinary folks with families and mainstream jobs. Some of us perhaps even a cut above average out there in corporate America, working our asses off and competing in the world. Many of us very successfully. We are not traitors, communists, fifth columnists, anti-American, un-patriotic, God-hating, terrorist supporting, or any of the thousand varieties of slurs we routinely hear ourselves called every day. But we are sick of the lies and bamboozlement from the highest places and we deserve to be heard. If not on the media, then by other means.

It was the Right that resorted to unbelievable vitriol and sliming in the Clinton administration and haven't stopped since. How different is the MoveOn ad from The Swift Boat campaign against Kerry? And have you heard Ann Coulter lately? I mean if you strip away the content, the insulting, demeaning and ad hominem attacks are certainly not limited to the left. But because we have no voice in the media (yeah, yeah, I know, but the MSM is actually very mainstream and resolutely corporate and representative of those interests) our tactics need to respond accordingly. Such is that way of a robust democracy, which thank goodness we still are.

Anyway, as we say in church, you might want to remove the mote from your side's own eye, before you look to remove the motes from the eyes of your fellow citizens. Because if this high level of division in our society keeps going the way it is, we're all going to end up with a lot less than we have now.

Sincerely,

Adrian Birkett

I’ll just make a few observations, and then let the rest of you have at it in the comments section.

1)      At least he’s polite.  Let’s give credit where it’s due.

2)      He thinks the NY Times ad was highly effective.  Here we have fresh evidence that the people at Moveon.org have created the world’s most soundproof echo chamber.

3)      He complains that “(at Moveon.org), we have no voice.”  Come now.  Were it only true.  Moveon.org is the equivalent of a Chatty Kathy doll that pulls its own string and has a bionic arm to do so.  No voice?  As John McEnroe said, “You cannot be serious.”  As an organization, they never shut up.

4)      He thinks I haven’t met people in Moveon.org.  Dude (I use terms like that when I’m trying to communicate with hipster doofus types), I’ve spent most of my life in Boston.  Half of my friends and neighbors belong to or contribute to Moveon.org.  My rabbi supports Moveon.org.  I know many Moveon.org types, and I can testify to the fact that they are for the most part good and normal people.  Until they enter the political arena.  Then it’s all unhinged rants about “lies and bamboozlements form the highest places.”

5)      A supporter of Moveon.org, a self proclaimed “contributor” to the highly effective” New York Times ad that called a four star general a traitor, solemnly laments “the level of division in our society.”  Irony, thy name is modern liberalism.

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