Indeed, lando. (And getting much shorter.......... especially for those of us on the other side of medicare enrollment. ^-^ ).
We ARE on the same side here.
I find myself in the middle of this debate quite often because I am very conservative, but also loyally Republican. That makes me, and people like me, the object of insults from both sides. I can't count the number of times I was called a "RINO" on Tos. And I guarantee I had a longer history and more fidelity to conservatism than any of those hurling it at me. The truth didn't matter to them. It's both easy and ugly to throw that term around.
But at the same time, I have seen the words "SoCons" are manipulative, dishonest, stupid, and want everyone to follow their narrow moral dictates. And I AM a social conservative. For me, those kinds of comments (coming frequently from some here) are equally insulting, and equally wrong.
I guess I should repeat what I said earlier............ I don't GET it. It's not that I never cross the line and say something I shouldn't say, but the regular beating up of fellow foxhole occupants makes no sense to me.
I plead guilty to using terms in a manner intended to be derogatory. It has become the way we make distinctions, in this high speed, anonymous forum setting.
We did NOT do this sort of thing when Reagan was running. The subgroups did exist, but they weren't so ignorantly nasty with each other. And we won, then.
We should get back to that mentality. I don't happen to be a diehard social conservative, but I can live with them as far as being on the same side of politics.
When I write "true conservative" or "real conservative@" in intend it to be sarcasm, to illustrate the narrowing definition, that almost guarantees a shrinking voter pool, and losing.
I am willing to stop that sort of thing, providing we agree overall on this matter.
