Alliances

I received a comment off of my last substantive post that raised a thought or two with me. Greenheart wrote in part:

In other words how about more and stronger polytheist alliances? Real world, not cyber, and no, not for eclectic purposes but to say, in one voice,"One god is not enough"

I'm all in favor of making alliances. But "one god is not enough?" For whom? I have no problem with monotheism the same way I have no problem with monogamy. The fact I don't practice either is purely a statement of my own needs, preferences and biases. I will not tell anyone who believes either is the way they should live that they are wrong. I will only demur from following if they try to talk me into it.

And what sort of alliance are we discussing, anyway? Political? Social? What will we do once we form one? Most politically active pagans are already using what's out there. We write letters, stage and participate in marches, join organizations, donate money and time, and vote. And if it's political, whose politics? There are pagans in just about every organization you can think of, including conservative ones. Many pagans cling to the belief that every one of us is a lockstep progressive. It's a prejudice of many of them that all pagans should be. I for one will not give in to it. The world is far more complex than any extreme would like people to believe.

On that note, while I've been aware of the Dominionists longer than some people, I'm not yet convinced the threat they pose is more than minor. I've been looking at some of the more secular right-wing voices, such as Instapundit, in a deliberate attempt to get information from more than one perspective. I do see the influence the Dominionists want to have. I also see many Republicans getting increasingly tired of them as well as some of President Bush's domestic policies. More and more, they notice that their party of limited government is being taken over by people who think "limited" means "limit everyone else but us." Ignoring the radicals won't make them go away, no, but I think there are ways of using the mutual distaste.

While more left-leaning people will not agree with the right-leaning folks about many things, if you want to talk alliances, this may be an opening we can use. Perhaps having a nice sit-down chat or twelve with the true conservatives about how we just want to be left in peace to live our lives as citizens with full and equal rights in exchange for helping to get the ultra-right-wingers out of their party might not be out of place. If you doubt it can be done, consider this. The Economist spent lots of pages explaining why same-sex marriage would be a good idea. I think that alone shows there are ways of arguing liberty with conservatives that gets us somewhere other than the wrong side of the door. After all, some of them already agree.

There are a lot of people who would be ill-served by a Cromwellesque takeover of the US government. Sexual and religious minorities are not the only ones. And I think we'd do well to remember that when we express our concerns about the latter-day Roundheads.