I believe your fundamental error is your tendency to see everything in black or white. If every last one of my views isn't consistent with the Tea Party I am a lunatic Obama supporting liberal babbling nonsense. I have some opinions that some would see as leaning left, and I've posted about many of them here. I also have a lot of opinions that would get a bunch of liberals to light their torches and grab their pitchforks. People like that would just as readily call me a far right nut job without even considering the rest of my opinions. Like it or not it is people like me that are floating somewhere around the middle that decide the outcomes of elections. If you're interested in the long term survival of conservative principles you are going to have to make some peace with people like me.
I believe my fundamental beliefs are in line with the things I say here. You wanted to label me a liberal because it was an easy way to discredit what I was saying without actually addressing it.
It all connects and makes sense in my head, just like the things you say connect and make sense in your head even though they may not make sense in mine.
I have a feeling that his extreme reaction to what you said was associated with some part of it hitting home and becoming personal to him. You're passionate about what you believe and you get fired up about it. It can be easy to offend people like that. If I remember correctly I was one of your biggest advocates as far as him forgiving what you said. I hope the two of you are able to reconcile your differences.
I'm not so sure about that, but I'm not really interested in drudging through post history to find out for sure. Either way I never took it personally. I just try to do my best to keep everything civil.
Well thank you, and likewise.
I'm sorry you feel that way. Obviously I see it differently or I would have a different point of view. The destruction of America is not on my to do list.
Too much here for me to respond to tonight, so I'll just touch on a few things.
1. I do not see "everything in black and white." There are many areas of gray throughout life. But it is not ALL gray. It is not ALL a matter of opinion, with each side being equal. That is where you are in fundamental error. There is good, and there is evil. To pretend that it's just another POV is not adequate. The funny thing is that you clearly have strong opinions about many things, yet you resist differing strong opinions in others. Don't live your life without moral absolutes. It's not the way life works.
2. I understand that there are those who are not strongly conservative nor strongly liberal. You might notice, if you care to, that I only react to the things you say that are liberal, and are thus, in error. (Lest I become to repetitive, your comment about OWS and the Tea Party and this government. It was just wrong. Period).
3. Yes, I'm passionate about many things, but there's not one person on this forum for which that is not the case.......including you. I'm not offended by Dan's passion about one world government. I'm not offended by Luis' passion about gay marriage. I'm not offended by your passion about being dispassionate. I'm not offended by those who see Islam as the root of all evil. I have four children, all of whom are passionate about something, and all of whom disagree with me on many issues. It doesn't affect my relationship with them whatsoever. If I've jumped to some erroneous conclusions about you, you've certainly jumped to as many or more about me.
4. Internet forum communication is faulty at best. For instance, Dan hates me because of a gross misunderstanding he has of me based on things he thought I thought about someone else on another forum. Years later, he's still got me on ignore, and yet we agree on almost everything. People misunderstand things all the time, and if people like Dan and Luis want to hold grudges for years, that's their right, and also the burden they have to live with. You can't make peace with people who want to live in conflict. I don't want to live in conflict with either of these two men, but they both want to live in conflict with me. There's no more I can do about that than I have already done. I like to argue, but I like making peace even better, and I can't do a blasted thing if people want to be mad at me forever for no reason. That ball, as they say, is in their court.
5. You truly seem like a decent fellow. But you really need to understand that in the world of black and white, liberalism is black. (Don't think by that statement that I think all Republicans are conservative and not liberal. They're not). Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, et al, are in the camp of evil. Recognizing that doesn't mean I see "everything" as black and white. But murdering babies so their mothers can go on vacation is evil, and the current Dem party has chosen to support that evil. And that's just one of many, many evils they espouse.
I don't know if any of this even makes sense to you in your world of shades of gray, but I encourage you to think about it, and think about where espousing life in that nebulous world will take you.