I say, Thank God to that! I actually have known dope-smoking hippies who were card-carrying communists (back when I worked at the newspaper). I have no idea if these people are still the same. Last time I saw one of them, he was coaching kids' soccer for the YMCA. But Glenn Beck says something interesting about Democrats and Republicans.
The day after the election, I frankly pissed off a lot of my real die-hard Republicans when I said, 'He is my president. He is your president.' We must have him succeed. If he fails, we all fail.
I really think that these parties have done a very good job of dividing us. I don't know personally a single Democrat who is a dope-smoking hippie that wants to turn us into Soviet Russia. I don't know a single Republican who wants to steal your children's school books, take the food away and give all it to Big Oil. Those are cartoon characters. We are Americans. We've got to pull together because we are facing dark, dark times. I don't trust a single weasel in Washington; I don't care what party they're from. But unless we trust each other, we're not going to make it.
One of the things I've discovered since I started blogging is that there are a lot of people out there who would rather believe in their cartoon versions of opponents rather than try to understand and debate those same people. I suppose we can trace that back to Crossfire or maybe Rush Limbaugh, but the shrillness of most blogs make them nearly unreadable. Go check out Pandagon for a good dose of unbelievable vitriol.
Back when Amanda Marcotte was doing her "book tour" (I dunno if discussions in your own town qualify as a book tour), I nearly made the day trip to Austin to shake her hand and force her to see me as a person, not her cartoon projection of what a conservative woman is. I may still do it some day. My thought is that if all the people who call conservatives "mouth-breathing troglodytes" actually had to talk to those people face-to-face, they'd either be ashamed of themselves or would be forced to maintain a certain level of civility. That doesn't seem like a bad idea, really.
I'm enjoying watching Democrats writhing and contorting themselves, trying to distiguish Rod Blagojevich from the average Democrat politician or Teh One, but at the end of the day, I hope when Barack Obama says neither he nor his staff were involved in Blagogate that he's telling the truth. Unfortunately, I don't know that I believe any politician who claims to be innocent. It's a sad reflection on modern politics.
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