On the contrary. I'm sure you're a very nice person. It's your message that I discount. You're propounding an utterly rigid ideology that permits no variation in belief or behavior. It is a philosophy that requires you to fully know the particulars of every situation.
As a result, everybody is, to you, a potential enemy.
You, sir, need to lighten up.
Why is it rigid? We havent even GOTTEN to a coherent philosophy yet. this entire branch of the conversation is predicated on the fact that conservatives can't agree on anything.
I am asking one core thing. What do we believe? Thats it. Tear everything else away. The personalities, the memes, the emoticons...what do we believe?
Now. Before we establish that, the rest is moot. I believe in the Reagan vision of conservatism. The guy that said 'We arent going to hand the party over." The guy that didn't make quantum shifts in his beliefs depending on who his opponent was or abandon his base for pledges he should never have made to begin with. A man that admitted mistakes but fought like a demon for his principles and what he KNEW to be right because he thought them through.
Now is that wrong? Is it WRONG to stand on what we believe and fight for it? Thats what I'm doing. Thats what a lot of people refuse to and get 6 ways of torqued about. I know what I believe. Do you? Then fight for it instead of 'whatever-ing' and complaining about demonization and purity.
Convince me of your position like Reagan convinced people of his. Because THAT is what we have to do. But we can't as a group until we know and agree on something.