Every once in awhile, I'll read a comment on this site that seems to me to be a solid Republican point of view and it makes me wonder about the person's true allegiance. Frequently, that comment has to deal with national security. Sometimes, if I'm unfamiliar with the person's postings on this site, I'll take a quick look at their comment history to get a feel for where they are coming from. When I do, I often discover that they seem to be solidly in the Democratic fold, but happen to disagree with me on some issues. Each time that happens, I have to rethink my initial assumptions.

The more this happens, the more I realize that our side really is a 'big tent'. There are so many different groups and individualists on the Democratic side that disagreement among them is almost guaranteed.

We are foolish to think that a party that has a left-leaning libertarian, like Dennis Kucinich, and centrists, like Hillary Clinton or Bill Richardson, will agree on every issue.

One of the reasons there are so many different points of view in this party, as in any party, is because people don't always choose party affiliation based on the issues. A lot of people choose their party the same way they choose the brand of car they drive or the religion they belong to - if it was good enough for their parents, its good enough for them. Others choose a party not out of affiliation, but more because they strongly oppose something the other party espouses. It truly does take all kinds.

The Democratic coalition contains big-government liberals that would like to see a socialist agenda take control of this country. It also contains small-government, returning Reagan Democrats. It contains GLBT rights supporters and strongly conservative southern Democrats who oppose equal rights for the GLBT community. Not surprisingly, it also contains anti-war pacifists and foreign policy hawks. It takes a really big tent to cover all of these divergent views.

In the end, we will never all agree on everything. We will probably have trouble getting everyone to agree on anything. Somehow, we must still muddle through to victory.

Today, I am taking a vow to do my part for party unity. Whenever I read a comment or diary that disagrees with my views, I will step back and think about whether this could be a valid view from a dissenting member of our community. Every time someone tries to rehash the bitterest parts of the primary, I will remind myself that there are hurt feelings that will never heal. Every time I find myself on the verge of an angry retort, I will pause to think through why the comment really set me off.

I know right now that I will fail to keep this vow at all times. There will be times where my fingers are faster than my self-imposed regulator can control. When that happens, I'll remind myself of the vow I made today and try even harder to be less divisive in the future.

Hate and divisiveness are what brought us the last eight years of disastrous domestic and foreign policy moves. The other side has learned to exploit these differences. We need to find a way to embrace them. Civil discourse is our greatest tool. In poll after poll, the American people favor the Democrats on almost every issue. We need to argue on the issues, not on petty differences.

There is only one way to begin to repair the damage done to this country's civil liberties, government efficiency, and world-wide reputation. We, the people, must take back control of OUR government from those who have created a government of the few, by the few, and for the few.

In the interests of unity, I am going to quote a great American who happened to be a Republican, Abraham Lincoln. "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds.... "