We are at war. You can pretend we can be one country again, but we can't.

[chknltl]

164. The same tactics used to conquer the right, worked against the left too!

This thread is proof. Some here are veritable intellectual giants compared to me, fellow DUers I have long been inspired by. Truth be told, I feared to open these two replys knowing I was likely going to defend my position against a fellow DUer I feel is a close comrade and in a few cases my intellectual leaders! Imagine my surprise....thank you for the kind words. I agree with much of what you said my fellow DUer, but this part I wish to discuss further:

"Republicans are weak, morally, intellectually...they are easily manipulated. They are irrational and impossible to get through to. We cannot count on them ever to 'get it', they will just go along with it when we change things."

There are clinical studies that I have seen that lend credence to what you say here. Even so these words you write do not sit well with me. I personally know republicans who are neither morally nor intellectually weak. Yes, they can be stubborn resisting our facts and data tirelessly until we withdraw from debate in sheer frustration. May I point out that this can be a good thing too?

Imagine that same pig-headed 'idiot' fighting on our side against the corporatists who are wrecking this nation. There was a time he fought with us against the NAZI and the Imperial Japanese. That same pig-headedness was a much needed tenacity which kept him in the fight. These are warrior souls and I strongly want them in my foxhole....we just need to find the key that gets them to point their guns at the true enemy instead of us! That key is our democracy, they have clearly shown that they are ready to lay down their very lives for her. If history repeats itself...well, see why I want them in our foxhole fighting with us now?

FEAR HATE and ANGER, was used against the right by the corporatists. Those studies I mentioned earlier suggested that there is a certain type of mindset that allows those three tools to flourish. We on the left take it for granted that this mindset is one which lacks education and/or curiosity. Present a hardcore righty with the facts and time after time the righty will find a way to explain away those facts. We DUers reinforce this by calling those on the right knuckledraggers and countless other names which suggest that they are uneducated/uninformed. I do this too. Did you catch that last bit: I do it too.

The truth is right here in this thread and plain to see: We are all subjectable to FEAR HATE and ANGER, that regardless of education or intellectual curiosity we can each have our judgement so clouded as to render facts unimportant to the equation. This is a fact: We The People are being manipulated and the result of this manipulation keeps us divided and subdivided. Those who are at war with us seek to keep us at war with each other. This thread shows how well that tactic is working. FEAR, HATE ANGER it works/is working equally well on us and we reinforce each other with it constantly.

So what if we let FEAR HATE and ANGER get the best of us, I ask what good can come of it? We The People continue down the road, fighting with each other, maybe even going so far down that road that things devolve into a second Civil War. At no point along that path are our true enemies, the corpoaratists slowed or harmed! Hell, they've moved off shore and/or found new markets elsewhere to exploit. (Except the GUN INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX-can you feel the drool?). The result: We The People lose and that grand experiment American democracy is taken away from us by oligarchs who laugh at us from bank vaults they own while sitting atop piles of wealth we once owned.

Clearly We The People as an electorate must come together with a focused and enlightened purpose if we are to bring about that change BOTH SIDES so strongly cry out for. Arguably, we on the left can see a part of what that change needs to be better than those on the right. Sadly, the primary weapon needed to take back our government in this war is not only overlooked, but this thread demonstrates that it is cast away equally by a house divided.

I know this is long but let me return a last time to that foxhole; "General Washington sir, we can hold out till we see the whites of their eyes but most of us are in dire need of spectacles!" Can you imagine if President Obama held a heart to heart talk with We The People and actually pointed out in terms graspable even by the 'knuckle daggers' who the real enemy is and how he got inside our perimeter?