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I disagree.

I don’t feel particularly threatened by Al Qaeda or airplanes falling from the sky.

I feel threatened by those who seek power via fear. I’m threatened by those who are willing, anxious even, to limit personal freedoms in the guise of heightened security. I’m scared of those who perpetuate the myth that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11 in order to justify a war that is destroying both our standing in the world and our economy.

While any death through terrorism is a tragedy, they remain individual tragedies. When a way of life is threatened it is a collective tragedy. As distasteful as it may seem, the reality is that most of the people manipulating public opinion and seeking to limit individual freedoms while removing the last vestiges of Constitutionally guaranteed rights, tend to sit on one side of the aisle.

We may well elect a ticket containing someone who believes that man shared the land with dinosaurs, that the end times are near (and can be helped along) and that if a child is raped by her father it’s just too damn bad. It is fear and stupidity that I worry about, not some lunatic goat herder living in a cave halfway around the world.

Al: “We may well elect a ticket containing someone who believes that man shared the land with dinosaurs, that the end times are near (and can be helped along) and that if a child is raped by her father it’s just too damn bad”

Or … “we may well elect a ticket containing someone who was raised in a Muslim country, whose wife is not proud of America, whose VP is in the pocket of the credit card companies, who is going to raise the taxes of everyone who makes more than $30,000 so he can pay for socialized medicine”

Sure, there’s lots of ugly charges to throw around. Some of them are even at least partially true. That’s not really anything new.

Let me put it this way: do you want Republicans to die, as a matter of “winning” this “war” we’re fighting? Do you not see the very terminology used … “enemy, battle, fight” … implies tactics and a level of violence that is entirely inappropriate for anything short of Al Qaeda?

To put it as bluntly as possible: do you think America will be best served if John McCain loses an election, or if he is killed and put six feet under?

Now, answer the same question about Osama bin Laden.

That is the difference I’m talking about. We speak verbally as if we have a physical enemy. Living right next door, loaning us his lawn mower.

We speak about generic right wingnuts and anonymous loony lefties who are but mere caricatures of the people we encounter every day (work with, play with, live with, etc.) who call themselves Democrats or Republicans.

I’m not only tired of being addressed that way, I am equally tired of those who “believe as I do” addressing “the other side” that way. It is beneath us. Unfortunately, it is not beneath the media, the pundits, and the mainstream political bloggers … so we emulate what we see and hear.

I’m sick of it. We’re better than this.

And if I’m wrong about that, then we do indeed deserve the fractured mess this country is becoming.

I’m not only tired of being addressed that way, I am equally tired of those who “believe as I do” addressing “the other side” that way. It is beneath us. Unfortunately, it is not beneath the media, the pundits, and the mainstream political bloggers … so we emulate what we see and hear

Just like I tried to point out to people in the last election that painting everyone as “red” and “blue”
wasn’t a good practice. Last time it was “blue” and “gray” and 250,000 people died.

Reid, the difference between your example and mine is that mine is true. Contrary to what some would have us believe, the facts matter and repeating a lie doesn’t make it true.

Of course I don’t want McCain dead. I expect that John McCain is a fine man, with the best of intentions. Unfortunately, his interests and the interests of those he is beholden to do not match mine. However, I believe that electing McCain would be far more damaging to this country than the continued existence of Osama bin Laden.

I don’t think much about bin Laden. I’m not even sure I see anything to be gained by his death. The extremists can always use another martyr and someone else will just step into his shoes. Justice is just great and I sincerely hope he rots in a very deep hole for a very long time, but his death isn’t going to do very much to make my children safer. I can even get behind his being cluster-bombed on the simple basis of retribution — except for the fact that if one was to poll the civilian population of Afghanistan, Iraq and increasing Pakistan, I’m sure a case could be made that we crossed the proportionate response line some time ago.

I’m not big on the adversarial tone being taken by both sides, but I’m not about to sit passively by and watch a SWIFT boat, WMD deception or Diebold reenactment.