But it is quite possible to be totally committed to a political ideology, and to the party that represents it, to a level that could well be called "bigoted" - and still be ready to subordinate that to a commitment to the democratic process.

And anyone who is not willing to so subordinate their political views is fundamentally hostile to the democratic process, regardless of their politics.

It seemed pretty evident in November 2000, by the way that people lined up, on what should have been the purely technical matter of vote counting, according to political preference and the result they wished to see, that many Americans are, in that sense, hostile to the democratic process.