Democrats. We just are who we are...

...and we just stand for what we stand for.

I got into a little online tussle with a Jewish aquaintance who cautioned that the Democrats couldn't nominate Joe Lieberman because Americans would never elect a Jew for President. Well, if anti-Semitism drives the next election, our range of choices becomes very limited. Wes Clark has talked pretty openly about his Jewish heritage. John Kerry had a Jewish grandfather. Howard Dean, Jewish wife, Jewish kids. Joe Lieberman, Jew. John Edwards is a lawyer, which is practically the same thing as a Jew for many Americans - if they ever met a Jew without an MD, he was probably a lawyer.

Dick Gephardt is about the only safe choice, I guess. I mean, look at the guy. He's the quintessential non-Jew. Then again, he's a lawyer, too, and he's taken more cash from AIPAC than Diane Feinstein.

It looks like we're just locked out of the anti-Semite vote this time around. Personally, I'm quite proud of that fact. It points to an important part of who we are as Democrats - an ecuminically tolerant Party that respects human rights and religious liberty, a Party whose diversity has become one of its hallmarks.

That diversity extends beyond race and religion. As Atrios colorfully points out, "There's something that Democrats need to realize - we're going to be the party of those icky gay people no matter what we do."

Without engaging the rhetorical distinctions between same-sex marriage and civil unions, it's time for our Presidential candidates to get off the fence and on the side of federalizing civil rights for gay and lesbian Americans, including providing the same protections and privileges that heterosexual relationships enjoy without the limitations of state borders. Human rights can't be subjected to the vagaries of state's rights.

We can try to duck the issue by changing the terms of the debate as Dr. Dean has proposed, but it's more important in the long term to realize that it's more important to be on the wrong side of some voters, because some voters are on the wrong side of some issues, and they just aren't going to listen to us no matter how we state the case. A recent column by Eleanor Clift made the point in plain terms.

"Dean is puzzled why minimum-wage workers who have no health benefits would vote Republican," she wrote. "The answer he'd rather not hear is they care more about God, gays and guns than health care."

The only way to appeal to everybody is to stand for nothing. If most Americans are on the wrong side, they'll make the wrong choice. Personally, I think most Americans are far more decent, far more tolerant, than some of our pols give them credit for, and if we take a clear stand on the right side, we'll win.