Yeah, I think it’s tougher in families. I am certainly the most conservative one in mine, but we do make the effort to argue as objectively as possible and never make it personal. Once you take out extremists (a very small number on either side I do believe) then you have people who are really looking for many of the same things, security for their family, happiness, an answer to life’s big questions, etc. If we (and the world) could stop acting as a mob I do think we would find we are not so different.
But, getting rid of extremism is astoundingly difficult.
“Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
—Barry Goldwater
I think that perhaps you do not really know very many liberals. I was raised in an ultra leftist family and was a leftist myself until my 20s, with residual psychopathology lasting a little bit longer. Finally around 30 I was clean.
I am now almost 60 and have studied leftism and leftists (not solely, most of my energy is elsewhere) intently.
They are morally bankrupt and do not think rationally. The “fringe” you speak of is mainstream and has a veneer of nicey nice which is quickly becoming unglued. Conservatives and liberals are not just two different wings, or two different ideas or parties.
There’s even been a study or studies done which found that people who identified as Democrats were much more immoral than those who identified as Republicans - more prone to lying, cheating, stealing and violence.
Leftist want power, and they have absolutely no qualms about using fraud, deceit, outright criminal acts and violence to get what they want. And if Obama wins, it will get so much worse that those like the author of this article will rue the day he spoke the namby pamby words at the end.
What’s going on right now is a sort of “Quiet Revolution” of the lefitsts. They aren’t herding anyone into gulags or lining people up next to pits training machine guns on them. But by outright and shameless lying, fraud, deceit, theft and criminal acts they plan to win. And the fault of conservatives is that we (in general) have been fearful little scared rabbits - scared of hurting feelings, standing up for truth, being “unpopular” and so on. We (in general) have LET them win.
Leftists are not like conservatives. If you think they are you are either not a conservative (and I don’t want to impugn you, I just read some of your comments and as a lawyer and I think you said judge you are obviously a highly intelligent man) or just don’t know any actual liberals.