Every time I find myself longing to support President Bush and his policies, he absolutely stuns me with his blunt lack of judgment. Reid is just being himself.”

Why is it that Bush is merely showing bad judgement while Reid is just being himself?

Do you have any evidence that Bush is not just being himself?

And as far as “organic existence under a single set of defining documents and institutions” being the “only” way to define a nation, I daresay you’d get an earful of laughter from any Chinese scholar on the planet. Your criteria is arbitrary and irrelevant anyway. Germany hasn’t been a “nation” under your definition until the 20th century. How about common language? Culture? A shared set of values and beliefs?

By any other measuring stick - except the one that you so capriciously used - America is in fact a very young country.

So stop lecturing and get a grip. The rest of the world recognizes the fact that America is a young country. But I guess that’s not good enough for you. Maybe you should write a book - you having such superior knowledge of history and all…

Your analysis of the national organism is an interesting one, and points to one of the major sticking points between conservatives and liberals. The notion that tradition is vital to maintaining the county’s (or any other organization) identity and continuity is a core conservative idea. It plays itself out in such areas as strict constructionist approaches to the Constitution, support for flag burning penalties, opposition to expanding marriage rights to gays, and a myriad of other efforts to protect the status quo.

Liberals tend to see the living organism of our nation as one that needs to change over time in response to changing politics, economics, ideas of morality and their self-defined notions of fairness. Liberals tend to pay less attention to tradition than do conservatives because they are focused on change.

Interestingly enough, systems theory teaches us that both ideas must be in place to insure the future success of any social organization, from the family to the nation. We must maintain enough continuity and tradition to keep our basic identity as an organization. Too much change will cause the organization to lose its identity and even purpose.

At the same time, failure to change in response to the times, conditions, etc. will also destroy an organization. Change must happen or the organization becomes irrelevant and unnecessary for current conditions, a certain death knell. So a balance of change and stability are needed to keep the United States moving forward. Liberals represent the change necessities of the country and conservatives represent the stability needs of the country (yes, these are generalities, exceptions can be found on either side). Yes, incredibly stupid, venal people exist on both sides of the equation, but they do not negate the effective, dedicated people that make up the majority of liberals and conservatives. Perhaps it is time to recognize that both conservatives and liberals are necessary for our nation to succeed and to stop dehumanizing each other. Argue, yes. Demonize, no. Each represents forces necessary to the existence of our nation.

Not only Harry Reid will forgo Gerald Ford’s state funeral in the Rotunda tomorrow night; President Bush won’t attend either, and Rick Moran is unhappy about it: “Anything I said about Reid above goes double for Bush.” (Right Wing Nut…