You're right that ichMael does add fuel to the fire with his "you poor deluded fools" approach, Spaw. No doubt about that, and it deserves mention.

I guess the main thing is when I see one person on one side doing that....and 15 or 20 on the other side behaving just as badly back to him...I tend often to sympathize to some extent with the guy that's outnumbered.

I also feel embarrassed when people on my own general side of a political issue fall into lazy, chauvinistic thinking and knee jerk ridicule of opponents. It embarasses me more when my political allies do that....perhaps because I expect better behaviour than that from them in the first place. ;-) (if you get what I mean)

See...if Sarah Palin acts like an intemperate jerk, it doesn't bother me much, I expect she might anyway, but it would bother me a lot if Dennis Kucinich did, because I expect a far better standard from him.