Political discussion in a vibrant, healthy democracy will include anger at politicians,

[woo me with science]

35. No, we're certainly not,

as evidenced not only by the horrific assaults on our Constitution and civil liberties even under a Democratic administration...

...but also by the prevalence of weird conversations like this on DU, in which we find ourselves having to defend ideas and principles that should be basic and a given to any American citizen: things like the radical idea that you can express anger about a politician on a political discussion board, or that a government with a Fourth Amendment should not be conducting mass surveillance on its own citizens.

There's a lot of "2+2=5" being disseminated here at DU and on political boards across the internet. However, this country is still at a point in our political history when most of us can still remember that 2+2=4.

It's important to defend that.