Reply #5: Common Ground

[Martin Eden]

We obviously have very much in common with our fellow citizens who voted for Bush -- we want what's best for our families and for our country. I like and respect many of the people at my workplace and on my softball team, and I know that some of them vote straight Republican. I happen to think they are misinformed, mistaken, and misled, but aside from politics there's little difference between "them" and "us."

Our task is to close the political gap, not by meeting them halfway on the political spectrum, but by promoting understanding. You make a good point that we can never get them to accept or understand our point of view while we're throwing stones at them.

The politicians who've misled them depend on the divisiveness of today's political climate. They need a divided populace, with both sides outraged at the other, and in our own outrage we feed into that cycle. We have to be smart enough and in control enough to realize what it will take to win our country back from those who are leading it down a dark and dangerous path.

P.S. It's the "Hatfields" & McCoys