In recent weeks I’ve been disgusted and saddened by the disrespectful actions of a few bad apples across the country.   I’m speaking, of course, about the occupation on April 10 of the New School’s Albert List Academic building in New York City.   I’m speaking about the numerous homosexual couples who flout the institution of monogamy by engaging in sexual intercourse with multiple partners.   I’m speaking about youths of racial minorities that make the choice to use drugs and commit acts of violence.

The surest way to fracture and splinter the left in the United States is to engage in risky, disrespectful behavior that goes against the moral fiber and standards of decency in this country.   The election of Barack Obama gives us all a chance to make our voices heard, and to waste our voices by being political radicals is shameful.

There exists today an unfathomable vast network of bureaucrats, policy makers and academics who work hard every day to make politics work for you and I.   The government of the United States was formed on the basis of a constitution designed to secure rights for everyone.

We should be thankful and respectful of all the people who work to help us, the men and women who serve our country to make the world safe for freedom. We should also commend ourselves for being productive members of this society who are gaining an education at a progressive liberal arts college.

Radical actions are far from productive, on the contrary, they invite their perpetrators to be smacked down by the policy pros who actually know what’s going on.   You can’t present a public art performance to congress, you can’t “deconstruct” a defense department budget, and trying to get scientists who are doing important medical research to just sit around and theorize about the meaning of life all day delays and prevents important medical advancements that save American lives.

Any chance of gaining conservative allies is destroyed by so-called “queer” activists and others who don’t believe that incremental reform is the best way of conducting a democracy.   At the same time that   potential conservative allies are alienated, there is an enormous backlash from conservative forces.   It is the responsibility of all Americans to politely and rationally voice their political opinion in the forums designated for such a purpose.

If a clear majority of the American public believed in radical values, the political system we have today would be impossible.   We would be forced to have multiple political parties, there would be profound disagreement all the time, we would need to rethink our basic approaches to foreign and domestic policy on all fronts.   The very structure of voting and districting might have to change.

These institutions are as old as America itself.   So before we “moon” the White House or take acid on the weekend, we ought to consider if that might offend someone else’s sensibilities.