There's also this pervasive attitude among certain elements of the Republicans which you yourself display - anyone who doesn't agree with you is a Kool-Aid drinking idiot, the Dems are out to destroy America, Obama wasn't born here and why hasn't he shown his birth certificate even though he has, only our views are patriotic, etc. The Republican party is infested with far more craziness and ignorance than the Democrats are right now, and it's obvious to many.
Extremely well said. The Democrats are not immune to craziness, but the Republicans are far, FAR worse. This is what drove me, a passionate centrist (if that's not an oxymoron) away from the party, and I know I'm not the only one. And yet the response to their loss, at least in some quarters, is that they should become even crazier.
This is a good time to recall the words of Senator George Mitchell to Oliver North during the Iran-Contra hearings: "It is possible to disagree with you and still love God and country just as much as you do." Too many of today's Republicans don't accept this.
