If Clinton Did This...

One of my goals, both as a person and in The Moderate Liberal, is to remove myself from the echo chambers and see beyond the partisan bickering; I want to make sure my concerns are real and fair, not just a knee jerk reaction. However, this can be very difficult. Once upon a time I didn't picture myself as a partisan. Sure, I tended to vote Democratic and registered that way so I could vote in the primaries, but I didn't think of myself as a Democrat; it wasn't part of my self-perception. Today, I'm a Democrat, no doubt about it. I've chosen my side and it is a part of who I am. I'm now fully partisan.

So how does one see objectively through blue-tinted glasses? How would a like-minded, moderate Republican see though his or her red-tinted glasses? One exercise I use every time I get mad at Bush is to imagine how I would react if Clinton had done the same thing. Would I feel the same way or would I give Clinton the benefit of the doubt? I suggest everyone try this out. If you are a Republican defending the latest attack against Bush, ask yourself "what if Clinton did this, would I feel the same way".

Sometimes it can be hard to imagine. "No, Clinton would never do something that dumb," I think to myself. Well, to help the imagination I'm going to start a new feature. When an article comes out about Bush that just gets me mad I'm going to post a hacked up version of that article claiming it was Clinton, perhaps with the dates or a few cosmetic facts altered. Then we can react, if Clinton did this, would we still feel the same?