Reply #39: I get tired of the conflation of message/messenger, sin/sinner, what/who.

[TahitiNut]

I can 'hate' what someone does without 'hating' the person doing it. I can 'hate' what someone says without 'hating' the preson saying it. And I can 'hate' the vote without 'hating' the voter.

:shrug:

I believe there are some who cannot (or will not) distinguish between the two.

When we emulate the right-wing and equate bashing what Smirk & Sneer do with "Bush-bashing," equate a disgust with what Lieberman does to "Lieberman-bashing," equate profound disagreement with how Clinton votes with "Hillary-bashing" ... then we're no better than right-wingers in our rhetoric.

Every time I see a DUer take disagreement with WHAT they say as a 'personal attack' and then reply in kind, insulting the person disagreeing, I know that the ability to attack the message instead of the messenger is not one commonly understood.