We’re sitting on a powder keg of hatred

[Cyrano]

It’s not unreasonable to state that most wingnuts hate our guts. It’s also not unreasonable to state that many of us hate Bush, Cheney, Limbaugh, Coulter, O’Reilly, etc. And it’s a fair guess that, due to the past seven years, much of the world hates Americans.

IMO, the cause of this problem lies squarely with the Republicans, starting with the Reagan years, and being highly elevated by Newt Gingrich’s poisonous language and actions when he was a congressman. Tom DeLay picked up where Gingrich left off and they then went after the Clinton administration with rabid viciousness.

The hatred that many of us harbor is a reaction to the hatred that has been directed against us. And it all makes for a very unhealthy and even dangerous situation. Hatred affects us all both mentally and physically.

We know that the Republicans will never declare a truce. So I believe that the only way to end this cycle of hatred is to win the ’08 election – and win BIG. At that point, we will (hopefully) have the luxury of ignoring them. If they want to continue hating, let them drown in their own bile. But let’s not drown with them.

I’ve had this conversation with friends and acquaintances, and most of them believe that, even if we win big, we can’t ignore them, forgive them, or stop hating them. They believe that by doing so, we will only be opening the door for them to, once again, take over and desecrate our government.

So do we forgive and forget, or do we seek what some would call “revenge” and others, myself included, would call “justice.”

[porphyrian]

1. Holding criminals and traitors accountable for their crimes is not revenge.

At one time, we were a nation of laws designed not simply for punishment but to protect and preserve our individual freedoms and to prevent ours from becoming yet another tyranny as so many before us. Those currently in power are the antithesis of this and an abomination. If we cannot stop them and hold them responsible for their crimes against everything we stand for, then America is truly lost.

[magellan]

7. Hear hear. n/t

[Javaman]

8. exactly, but the repukes will take it as revenge, because they themselves are vengeful people. nt

[porphyrian]

9. That's OK, they don't get to frame the conversation when they are guilty. -n/t

[KansDem]

2. I've thought the same thing...

So do we forgive and forget, or do we seek what some would call “revenge” and others, myself included, would call “justice.”

Personally, I'd like to step on and squash these people like the poisonous pestilence they are. But a rational part of me says we need to work together to move this country forward. I hope there are enough potentially-rational members of their sect to see this point of view as well, and will join us in achieving our goals.

In the words St. Ronnie, their patron saint of conservatism, "Trust, but verify"

[EFerrari]

3. You will likely win in 08 unless they steal it, and the Republicans

will just go after the Democratic president twice as hard as they went after Clinton. You can't ignore them.

[Cyrano]

4. During most of the Clinton years, they controlled the senate and house.

Hopefully, if we can truly control it all (without having to worry about the Joe Liebermans of the world) we will have the luxury of ignoring their venomous dirty tricks, their hatred of democracy, and their spitting on us "peasants."

Ignoring them is but one option I mentioned in the OP. I truly want to see them brought to justice -- hopefully in the Hague -- where no one can accuse us of rendering partisan justice.

[EFerrari]

5. They still control the media. The Clinton years was when

I first started detesting cable talk shows because of the relentless bashing.

[Cyrano]

6. This can quickly be changed by a Dem prez and congress bringing

back the fairness doctrine.