Tony, I like you and we probably agree on more things than we disagree on.....BUT, I have to say.....people lose credibility with me when they try to point to a handful of leftist nutcases and try to pretend that the 24/7 barrage of hate speech (much of it from politicians and PAC's), the LEVEL of disrespect for Obama (and even his wife and children - heretofore unprecedented), the highest level of (presidential) death threats in history, the 100% block voting against every piece of proposed legislation out of the White House, the stated PRIMARY mission (as articulated my Mitch McConnell) of making sure Obama does not get reelected as opposed to doing the work of congress in the service of the people, and so many other things, from the threat of secession to a proposal to mandate arming every citizen in the state, to official pleas to parents to pull their children out of school rather than have them 'exposed' to an address by the president to school children on the value of staying in school. No, I don't believe the rhetoric on the left even begins to approach the vitriol coming from all quadrants of the right. As I said before, I have no problem with reasonable fiscal conservatism, but I have a BIG problem with what now passes for SOCIAL conservatism. I grew up in the 'good ol' days' that social conservatives would have us return to. Those days of unequal pay, unequal education, discrimination, and White privilege. No thanks, I'll pass. Been there, done that. Obviously we see the world through different cultural filters and I realize that what you may remember as the days of innocence, I may well remember as the days of repression and lost opportunity. The word 'Conservatism' has taken on a new meaning in recent years, a meaning that even old time traditional conservatives are uncomfortable with. Getting a little sleepy now so I have to cut this off, but I wish we had an opportunity to sit around a table and discuss these types of issues. I'm sure we could learn a lot from each other's life experiences.

chas