Towards a Saner Left

Here's a welcome development: a manifesto for liberals and socialists that eschews moral relativism, seeks to keep criticism of the US (including the Iraq war) in perspective, and leaves the door open to co-operation with moderate and conservative groups. Here's the preamble:

We are democrats and progressives. We propose here a fresh political alignment. Many of us belong to the Left, but the principles that we set out are not exclusive. We reach out, rather, beyond the socialist Left towards egalitarian liberals and others of unambiguous democratic commitment. Indeed, the reconfiguration of progressive opinion that we aim for involves drawing a line between the forces of the Left that remain true to its authentic values, and currents that have lately shown themselves rather too flexible about these values. It involves making common cause with genuine democrats, whether socialist or not.

The rest can be read here.

If there is a serious Christian left, these are the sorts of principles it should adopt.