Mark Steyn' on which party is the true big tent party

Mark Steyn's column today is so packed full of perceptive points packed in with great writing that I'd just like to excerpt the whole thing. Here's a sample and you go read the rest.

On the other hand, as National Review's Jonah Goldberg pointed out, the mainstream media are always demanding the GOP demonstrate its commitment to "big tent" Republicanism, and here we are with the biggest of big tents in history, and what credit do they get? You want an anti-war Republican? A pro-abortion Republican? An anti-gun Republican? A pro-illegal immigration Republican? You got 'em! Short of drafting Fidel Castro and Mullah Omar, it's hard to see how the tent could get much bigger. As the new GOP bumper sticker says, "Celebrate Diversity."

Over on the Democratic side, meanwhile, they've got a woman, a black, a Hispanic, a preening metrosexual with an angled nape – and they all think exactly the same. They remind me of "The Johnny Mathis Christmas Album," which Columbia used to re-release every year in a different sleeve: same old songs, new cover. When your ideas are identical, there's not a lot to argue about except biography.

To be sure, John Edwards is said to have been hammering Hillary on her Iraq vote, but this is an almost surreally post-modern dispute. Five years ago, Sen. Clinton's Iraq vote was exactly the same as Sen. Edwards': They both voted for war. The only difference is that the former stands by her vote while the latter has since 'fessed up and revealed he was duped, suckered, played for a sap by George W. Bush. Bush is famously the world's all-time biggest moron but that's apparently no obstacle when you're seeking to roll the Democratic Senate caucus. Anyway, Sen. Edwards is now demanding Sen. Clinton repudiate her Iraq vote and concede she's as big a patsy and pushover as he is. And this is apparently what passes for "toughness" on the Democrat side....

Let me ask a question of my Democrat friends: What does John Edwards really believe on Iraq? I mean, really? To pose the question is to answer it: There's no there there. In the Dem debates, the only fellow who knows what he believes and says it out loud is Dennis Kucinich. Otherwise, all is pandering and calculation.

This ties back to the criticism of diversity quotas in universities. They are happy to have all sorts of people of different ethnic backgrounds, but no interest in diversity of ideology.