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At this point, every Democrat and left-leaning person has to decide if they are going to be more or less like the right. The right wing sees conspiracy in everything; this may seem like hyperbole untill you watch Fox news or listen to Rush Limbaugh. The liberals are stealing and destroying Christmas, the homosexuals are secretly recruiting in high schools, and the media is hiding the good news from Iraq. From the way they talk, you'd think they didn't have control of the executive branch, the House of Representative, and the Senate. The conspiracy mentality is the mentality of people who perceive themselves as powerless, and see themselves at the mercy of a host of invisible, implacable foes. It also comforts people who don't want to face unpleasant facts; the idea that the Republicans stole the election is much more palatable to democrats then the fact that Bush won. Of course, the worst thing about a conspiracy mentality is that it prevents a person from engaging reality in an effective way. All the effort spent on proving the "theft" of Ohio's electoral votes might have been better applied towards improving the democrats chances in the next election.
Let's try to be the "reality based" party.
