Hate to say it, Bill, but you sound like a man who's given up.
Heh, well....
Not with respect to this particular conversation. All I'm saying in this exchange with you is that I think we are in a battle -- a very
important battle regarding the direction in which this country should go, which impacts incredibly important issues. I don't believe those differences can or
should be glossed over or ignored in the way of "unity". It's a battle that needs to be fought, so I don't think we
should be uniting behind a Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, even if they talked politely. We should oppose what they want to do with/to the country. So it's not that I've
given up -- It's actually the opposite -- I'm spoiling for a fight on those issues and principles because my vision for the country does not come anywhere close to matching theirs. That's not to say that I think the argument from our side needs to be uncivil - it does not. It just has to be made and won to the voters. And just to emphasize that last point, there is a huge difference between
making the argument, and actually winning it in the eyes of enough voters. I think there are some who think that making the argument should be enough -- "I'm right -- what else do I need?" But the truth is being right in politics isn't enough if you can't win, and that sometimes requires more strategic thinking/pragmatism.
But to be honest, I am becoming more and more convinced that we are losing that battle, and a good bit of it has to do with your point b), about civility. It appears that here, and more generally among those who do agree that Hillary Clinton and leftism are "bad things", we have lost the ability to disagree civilly with one another. It has largely devolved into relatively juvenile name-calling on both sides, nastiness, condescension, etc.. I believe these are things that will "leave a mark" after this election is over, and I fear they will prevent the assembling of any sort of coalition that might have a chance on toppling the left moving forward.
So in that respect, I'm losing hope. Even if I'm not quite at the point of "giving up".