Perhaps you can find me a positive comment here about conservatives?

When they do something worthwhile and praiseworthy, they'll be recognized for such. Until then? They reap what they sow.

Given their history (and yours), that's about as likely as meeting Godot in the next five minutes.

Life my mirror the novels of De Sade these days, but these threads do not. You should have learned that some time back, shooter242.

If I walk in to a cow shed, I'm not going to worry about offending the cows by shitting on the floor. Same deal here.

Do I take greater offense at you comparing us to cattle, or that discussion of these issues is nothing but defecation to you?

And you want to complain about 'hatred' here? It is to laugh.

The Right's noise machine sees something working, and so will continue doing it.

The nominal Left has, at least until recently, been in the grip of a class of consultants who consistently failed to grasp there are real-world consequences to election results. Part of this was due, one thinks, due to their comparatively isolated environs (ie. The Beltway) and the often-rational bent of their clients.

The midterms of 1994 were the modern wake-up call for the latter, while the former saw their gutter tactics bear tangible fruit. Even so, the 'left' has been slower to adapt than the right, again in part due to the lack of visible and truly national negative consequences of the right's gameplan. The Bush Administration, with its scortched earth philosophy and frankly messianic nihlism, has invited and even reveled in those consequences.

The only silver lining has been that the left's consultant class is seeing its fortunes waning where before it could treat elections as spectator sport (win or loose, their services would always be for sale). The rise of the blogsphere has prompted a reconsideration of tactics, not to mirror the right's command of the gutter, but rather to neutralize them. Its unlikely the right's candidates would be able to withstand being dragged down into the same filth they've been flinging across the aisle for so long, especially if done so in the sort of sane, measured manner the left usually specializes in.

I'm not suggesting this election is the be all and end all of this reorientation. The right's noise makers will still be around after November 5th, and the Beltway consultants aren't going to magically disappear. But the incentives for both sides to change are gaining prominance. Whether they prove enough over time remains to be seen.

Is it "contradictory" to decry the right's tactics while insisting on their equal application?

The self-evident answer is "no". Until one's opponent is given reason to actually stop, they'll continuing using tactics that work for them.

So the question becomes what is stopping the Democrats from hitting back with the same, proven-effective tactics the Republicans have? With the current GOP, one doesn't need to manufacture the dirt needed to bury them; publically known details of their lives is more than enough.

Is it some cognative failing? An emotional one? Do they simply lack the will to make the obvious case?

Perhaps there hope for you yet.

Okay then - what's the golden bullet you need to get McCain?

Oh, let's see: tax cuts, his divorce, the fact he just doesn't know what he's talking about re: Iraq, just to name three off the top of my head.

Tax cuts: he was against them before he was for them.(flip-flopper)

His first marriage: family is important, but only if it pays him well.(no moral committment)

Iraq: he doesn't know who the enemy is, so how can he lead us to victory?(senility)

Rather easy, isn't it?

But PLLLEASEE...get a clue when it comes to the validity of vile left-wing propoganda.

I think that's the first time I've seen the words "validity" and "propoganda" used together in one sentence. Its completely contradictory, of course, but a truly an impressive mangling of written English nontheless.

In any case did you have an actual point or is this just more excrement?

My original point was a challenge to you. I'll take that as a duck.

The challenge was answered. Look back over recent comments before reaching conclusions like that.

Am I the only one who feels so strongly about this?

Fortunately no, you aren't.

Unfortunately, there is a sizable chunk of the populace that don't think or worry about this. More the fool they.

I'm voting for McCain based on policy; he's determined that our military will prevail in Iraq. Obama has determined that we're done there.

So you're casting your vote based upon your preference for continued, objectiveless, ultimately meaningless military action.

I would weep for you, but I'll save my tears for my children.

Oh, and Kerry and Gore were and are far better men than the slob presently in the Oval Office, at least in any objective consideration of what has come since the 2000 election.

That kind of possessed, Bush-Derangement-Syndrome hate speech has been going on for seven years, and it doesn't even raise an eyebrow at Salon.

Tell me I'm wrong that your man Bush hasn't fucked everything up nineteen ways from Sunday.

Tell me either Gore or Kerry, sensible men both, could have possibly made a worse mess for us than Bush's economic and security policies have.

Tell me George W Bush disregarding the indisputable fact he lost the popular vote in 2000 was a positive act for the good of the country.

I'm not going to try convincing you of anything, but merely deliver a clear-headed warning: warriors know only war and nothing else. If you choose to follow that status-conscious primadonna from Arizona because of some faux warrior ethos, don't complain when you die by his sword.

Word to the wise.