First off, maybe you, Frank, are living in "not normal" times, but I'm not. My life is just as normal now as it was on 9/10/2001, and in October 2000. The election of Bush and 9/11 did nothing to change my life one iota. So, I consider any Democratic sycophant claims that we are living in "not normal" times because Bush is president, to be just as ludicrous, disturbing, and frightening as the fundamentalist Christian claims that Bush is their apocalypse president because he will usher in the end times.

I see no difference between the hysterical Democratic "not normal times" fear mongering and the hysterical Republican "end times" fear mongering.

Both sides are delusional in that regard, and the Democrats and self-proclaimed progressives for Kerry frighten me every bit as much as the Bush Republicans do.

However, I am not frightened and disturbed by Democrats who are honest about their support for Kerry or Republicans who are honest about their support Bush, when they simply say "that is the candidate that best represents my political worldview" without demonizing the other party's candidate as if he were Satan. That is just despicable, and there are plenty of people posting here in Mudcat who are doing that, and doing it all the time.

It isn't just enough for you to demonize and villify Bush and Nader though. The Kerry as Messiah group (or angel, if you prefer your choice of words) is an unbalanced, hysterical group of people I don't wish to have any association with, thank you very much. And that includes you, Frank. And Amos. And Jack the Sailor. And Don Firth. And Nerd. And Ron Davies. And McGrath, even though he can't even vote because he isn't a US resident.

As to the accusations that Nader is accepting Republican money, I think we all know that sort of thing is a typical dirty tricks tactic. Kerry supporters aren't going to believe that myth, the same way that the Bush supporters believe Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11. You don't want to know, nor will you accept, the truth or the facts of the case about it, because it would result in cognitive dissonance for you.

And when I read the threads here about the "separate realities" of the Kerry and Bush camps, I sit back and howl. Kerry supporters are just as delusional, just as biased, and experience just as much cognitive dissonance with their candidate as many Republicans do with Bush. Yet the conclusion of the Kerry camp is that ONLY Bush supporters suffer from this. How about Kerry's anti-war supporters? How about Kerry's universal health care advocates who are now supporting him? Plenty of cognitive dissonance there, Frank, because Kerry isn't on their side of the issue any more than Bush is.

The anti-Bush fear mongering Kerry supporters keep saying things like "The premise behind the Nader support is that Kerry is going to be just like Bush and turn Republican for some reason."

You just don't get how arrogant it is of you to presume to state what MY premise is for supporting Nader. You are absolutely, 100% wrong in YOUR premise about Nader supporters, Frank. But that doesn't stop you from engaging in this arrogant, patronizing bull shit game of demonizing Nader.

And I really have to question why Kerry's supporters would keep doing that at this point. The Democratic army of lawyers has succeeded in keeping him off the ballot in nearly every battleground state. You should be happy now, and just get on with it. But you can't. Your viciousness and bitterness and rancor is still driving you. It is every bit as ugly as the Bush supporters viciousness, bitterness, and rancor. The closer the election gets, the worse the Mudcat Kerry supporters' foaming at the mouth gets. You've become what it is you claim to hate and despise so much: irrational, hateful, fear mongering dividers.

Nader is not now, and never has been your enemy. Your arrogant dismissiveness regarding Jesse Ventura only demonstrates what a partisan worldview you hold. Jesse wasn't merely a humorous diversion, no matter how pathetic he looked. The man does have some intelligence and his insights into the partisan wars are fairly astute. But because of your closed minded, partisan worldview, you can't objectively judge when Jesse is making an astute, accurate observation, and when he isn't, because your partisan blinders don't allow you to think objectively, and even more importantly, critically about politics.

I won't follow any group that is so blinded by their own partisan prejudices, and the Kerry supporters are every bit as blinded as their Bush counterparts. Kerry's supporters are so blinded by their hatred of Bush, that they are no longer rational, logical, critical thinkers. They just swallow their party's lines and lies hook, line, and sinker, because it is so easy. So black and white. So certain. So safe for them and their bigoted, partisan worldview.

There are only a handful of people willing to work above the partisan divide in this election, and who will be prepared to heal the divisions between Bush's America and Kerry's America when it is all over. Those people are most certainly NOT Kerry Democrats and Kerry progressives. I absolutely do not believe that the Kerry Democrats and Kerry progressives will hold Kerry's feet to the fire. They have collapsed, accepted the politics of appeasement, and will never rejoin the movements for social change they abandoned to support Kerry.

I know of not one single Nader supporter who believes Kerry would be the same as Bush. Not one. That is a Democratic myth. I live in a neighborhood where in 2000, Nader lawn signs were everywhere. Today, they have been mostly replaced by Kerry/Edwards signs. I have no problem with that. But I wish the Kerry supporters would stop harrassing me for my Nader lawn sign. They get very vicious. More than one Kerry supporter has bullied and threatened us for supporting Nader, by coming to our house, ringing our doorbell, and screaming in my face when I opened my door. I have been verbally abused by Kerry supporters in the parking lot of my coop. I have colleagues at work who aren't speaking to me because I am supporting Nader.

That is how out of control the Kerry people are. Out of control, anti-social, irrational to the point where I feel like some of these nut cases could actually do me and my family physical harm.

Back during Gulf War I, we put a gigantic peace sign in Xmas lights on our house. We lived in a very Republican area at that time. I was somewhat fearful then, that we or our house might be attacked/vandalized by Republican gung ho types. Seriously was fearful of it. But nothing ever happened, except that the Republicans who went as far as to mention it to me, politely disagreed with me, or vigorously debated my views with me.

But the Kerry supporters have actually bullied and harrassed us, at home, at work, and out in the community where we conduct our daily lives. I am, at this point, much more fearful of you Kerry types than I am of the Bush supporters. Not more fearful of a Kerry presidency than a Bush presidency. But more fearful of Kerry's supporters and their fascist tactics of bullying and intimidation.