Anybody from any side comfortable with the idea of denying those that disagree with them the right to have a say, could happily lay claim to that argument. That goes for despots as well.
In fact those other things really, really do matter as those are the strata on which things actually get discussed and where minds get changed. It needs to be acknowldged and indeed celebrated that very smart people can disagree on very important things, and that's the only environment where respect -> consensus -> governance can flourish. The thing is that we are increasingly refusing to believe that. We're also increasingly voting in demagogues that pander to this destructive nonsense, with the right admittedly and overwhelmingly driving the trend.
I will state categorically that there are people on the right (and of course the left) that know more, are smarter and wiser, and understand the issues much better than I do. Given that, it would be arrogant of me, and unhealthy to society to count any of them out, or to even brand their whole side as uninformed. I'm not even sure how you logically square how half the country can disagree with us. Do you really see all of them as stupid/uninformed/evil/selfish/manipulated? For all those people that statistically just can't make sense. Witness the good Mr. Marcello who's come over to the light. I doubt he switched sides because our lot were calling him this and that.
Yes, their vote will be counted, but only sort of, though from your tone...
...it sounds like you'd happily have them discarded and that's what I'd take issue with.
Sorry Red, I don't mean to have a pop at you. This rant isn't really at you, but what I've unfairly chosen these posts of yours to represent. I like your politics, am in awe at your political diligence, and you're a swell eChap. A big part of why I don't say much around these parts is because you've already said it. However, I really do abhor your (and I think most of you on here) outlook concerning the "other side". This partisanship is all part of the problem. Folks on this thread (and all over this internet) are having too much fun painting the other side with cartoonish palettes. Monocle wearing blue-bloods, racist revivalists, yank retards etc. Like some of you I do actually live here and am confounded where folks think this approach is going to lead. You can't think that this caricaturing is actually supposed to change any minds, and I'd thought that's what this whole campaign lark is supposed to be about.
Anyway, the net of ideas for this rant has already frayed and I've wandered off. I reckon this thread has got me addled as it's mired in what's so misleading about the electoral process here. Minds are long made up, and are instead engaging in incessant statistical analysis of what some ridiculously small subsection of the populace in a ridiculously small subsection of states that might still be in play. This is more about consultants, pollsters, and pundits than it is democracy.
Yer man Springsteen was on form today. Good for him. Said some great things about our Barrack.
She's my favourite, that warrants a post.