I am simply suggesting creative and individual thought outside the party box, Bobert, as opposed to gathering in contempt-spewing gangs of the righteously like-minded, bandying about gross stereotypes about your opponents, and parroting standard party line.

I am NOT suggesting that the Right in America is morally equivalent to the Left! Nor am I neutral! I think the Right is considerably worse in America than the Left is, and always has been...I AM a leftist... but I like to see people actually think independently and fairly rather than just engage in vicious partisan witchhunts against anyone they think is on "the other side".

And I will not pardon the Left for doing it just because the Right does it too, and sometimes does it in a worse fashion.

You see, Bobert, if you think that YOUR side are lily-white just because you're not THEM....then you're making the same error that they are. In religion it is called "the sin of self-righteousness".

I am suggesting that you see your opponents as complex human beings who, just like you, want liberty, freedom, fairness, and justice...but because of their particular background don't understand that you do too...and don't come up with the same rationale for how to get there.

Mutual respect, in other words. If you're not capable of giving that to people you disagree with about politics or anything else, then how would you expect to ever resolve anything with people who see things differently?

Without mutual respect between political opponents the only possibility left is open war. If that's what you want, I don't think it will lead you anywhere you really would wish to go.

If your excuse is that "Well, but they don't respect me", then I say that a bridge can only be started by the man who is willing to lay down the first plank. And the next plank. And however many planks it takes after that.