[Bruce Campbells Chin]

The only reason I'm making the issue about Cawthorn is that I think too many conservatives reflectively defend anything another conservative says or does, simply because they happen to be a conservative. And I think we lose our edge if we forget about thinking clearly simply because we happen to "like" someone. It also can lead us into situations where we end up defending the very things we often criticize.

Cawthorn looks like an idiot on this because it is so easy to "bust" him. Simply ask him to name names, and when he doesn't, he looks like he just made it up because he thought the accusation alone would appeal to his constituency.

[dfwgator]

I hear what you’re saying but this is how it is in the real world.

The Democrats kick our asses because they circle the wagons no matter how unpopular a particular politician may be.

We may not like it, but if we are to stand up to them we have to be willing to accept some flaws in our candidates, and not be so quick to throw them under the bus.

[rlmorel]

I don’t have a problem with that viewpoint, not in the least.

I am simply fed up with this government and media at all levels from top to bottom.

Stuff like this may be a red herring-nothingburger-stupidity, but the simple fact that is is not so far out of scale that we can’t throw it in the trash immediately is indicative of a wider and deeper rot.

I am sick of having to parse every single damned piece of information that comes my way. EVERYTHING. I have reached the point where I am willing to take the chance of throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

I am sick to death of it. And it is making me, day to day, boiling mad.

I have spent my adult life trying to look at issues, study them, view the intricacies, on top of all the other things I have to do to make an intelligent decision that is in line with my core conservative values I try to live my life by, working 60 hour weeks for 30 years, managing a home, all that, then to have my vote totally negated, not by some douchebag brainless leftist college student anymore (which would be bad enough) but by a G-Damn copied paper ballot on a one cent sheet of copy paper.

So yes. I am pissed about this. And this is just the skim of oil on top of an ocean of this sewage that used to be the country I love.

[rlmorel]

Just to be clear, I completely appreciate reasoned discourse, which is what you are doing.

I just get angrier each day that there is so little of it that it now looks like an anomaly, even in conservative circles.