I've been around here for six years now and I always dread the lead-up to general elections. There are a disproportionate number of Constitutionalists, Libertarians, bizarre conspiracy theorists and minor candidate supporters who post here and make things more than a little miserable for the majority.
And, in support of minority views, dirty tricks abound. For instance, some have falsely claimed that they vote Republican but (with righteous intonations) will never again vote for [insert incumbent] - when a scan of their profile pages and posting history reveals a consistent minor party liaison. Sigh...
But being loud and angry is rarely persuasive (ask Dean) and thus, all that is accomplished is the anger itself and indeed, sometimes posters are "driven away" - hopefully, only temporarily.
Seems to me it usually boils down to some form of a "righteous indignation" argument with the dissenters claiming moral superiority. The counter plea of "don't throw the baby out with the bathwater" doesn't seem to gather steam until a month or so before the election.
I wish that everyone who is offended by all these squeaky wheels would please stand back, take a deep breath and look at the overall picture. A good measure is the last Freep-poll that 81% of the Freepers believe Bush’s State of the Union address was either Excellent or Good.
I also wish the Immigration threads were kept in the Smokey Backroom because the language reflects poorly on the forum and I suspect will be thrown back at us down the road with the usual false condemnations: Nazis, racists, etc.