Al Gore -- "I have a big ally -- reality."
Al Gore is one of the foremost spokesmen in global warming, and he declared that he had an ally in reality. That is what the Democratic party is all about -- identifying realities and dealing with them.
"When someone says, 'Thank you for changing people's minds', I say, 'Well I have a big ally - reality'. Reality is knocking ever more loudly, ever more insistently on mankind's door saying, 'Wake up there. Your world is changing. You are changing it. You need to change'."
Gore made his remarks in New Zealand, which has one of the most progressive governments in the world. Their stated goal is to reduce their carbons to net zero -- in other words, emit only as many carbons as the earth can get rid of.
We are on the side of reality on plenty of issues. Reality states that the cycle of boom and bust championed by the Conservatives was a catastrophic failure. Reality states that the Reagan years where he turned his back on steps to end Global Warming and his massive budget deficits were a complete and total failure. Reality states that Global Warming is a fact. Reality states that there were no WMD's, that any reasonable person could and shoud have inferred that from the evidence, and that our occupation of Iraq is emboldening the terrorists. Reality states that we were the ones who actually did something about the terrorists, by bringing down the BCCI, which was bankrolling Bin Laden. Reality states that in the crucial weeks before the 9/11 attacks that Bush was doing nothing to stop the attacks with planes even though he had been warned.
The voters returned us to power because they saw reality -- the reality of record budget deficts, price gouging of sick and elderly people by health insurers, the reality of the fact that the Iraq occupation is emboldening terrorists. We will stay in power as long as we are on reality's side. As long as we acknowledge reality -- the reality that universal health care works, that working as a group with other countries is better than working along, that military occupations fail without the consent of the governed, the fact that by giving up civil liberties, we will get neither liberty nor security -- we will continue to win elections. If we depart from all that, if too many Democrats decide to act like Republicans instead of Democrats, if too many Democrats act out of fear, and if we do not show clear differences between ourselves and the Republicans, we will lose again.
The bottom line is simple -- we must not worry about whether reality is on our side -- we must make sure we are on reality's side.