Ok, someone who calls himself Real Liberal Boulder has started a blog devoted to me (interesting that I awaken such ardor in someone). I am not going to argue opinion here but I would like to correct a couple of things s/he has factually wrong.
- My name is spelled Thielen, not Thielin. It's right there in the url to this page - www.davidthielen.info.
- It's Will Shafroth, not Bill Shafroth.
- Yes I think the Republican party needs to have strong credible candidates in the local Boulder races. We have had a one party system in Boulder County for a long time and a one party system is inherently corrupting, if not with financial payments, then with abuse of power. With that said, I didn’t endorse Bob over Claire, I just said that I think the Republicans should put Bob up because it would make a great race.
- As to my fawning over one of the candidates to later endorse, is it Joan, Jared, or Will? I'd like to know because at present I'm not sure who I would vote for. At present my preference is that all 3 get on the primary ballot as all 3 are very good candidates and I would be happy with any one of them.
- As to my not being a liberal, I am a strong advocate of appropriate market regulation, including actions to reduce our carbon output - see this post on taxing carbon, I am a strong supporter of helping Hispanic, African-Americans, the poor, etc. get a true equal opportunity - see this post on affirmative action. There's more if you read my posts.
- Yes my mom’s an elected Republican. A very liberal Republican but a Republican. But even if she was way to the right, what does that have to do with my politics? And my sister is a Democrat (apparently RLB is not aware of that), as are all my other siblings, most of my mom’s legislative staff, most of her voters, etc.
The root issue that bothers me about RLB's post is not our disagreement on issues as that is what makes the blogosphere interesting. Rather it is that his/her continuous call for censorship is the antithesis of liberalism. And it is especially interesting that RLB calls for this censorship from a cloak of anonymity.
I hope that moving forward RLB will chose to contribute to the debate by discussing issues rather than trying to reduce the debate by restricting who is allowed to speak. I invite RLB to join in on a robust and open debate on the candidates, on the issues, even on if I'm a liberal.
But let's discuss it rather than call for expulsion of anyone who does not meet your criteria of political purity. Because if we all agree, the world would be a very boring place.
Update: Jann Scott has proposed a debate between RLB and me, moderated by him. I have accepted so we are waiting on RLB.
