I think the trouble is less with the fact that some posters criticize President Bush or other conservative leaders or each other than with the tone and manner in which some of those criticisms are made. I registered with FR last fall, but have only really been active since the summer started when I and a good number of others came over from Lucianne.com. We noticed (I certainly did) that manners and opinions were much more free-wheeling over here, including the fact that some of our fellow guests here, conservative ones, didn't care much for how Dub and his administration were doing their jobs and weren't at all shy about saying so. I didn't always like the way they said it. I thought they were rather harsher than I would be to people with whom I was ostensibly on the same side. But I didn't and don't care to return fire in kind because first, it's not my style, and second, as vehement as some of my conservative colleagues here are in their opposition, and as much as I might disagree with their arguments and methods, they
are my fellow conservatives, and I'd prefer not to waste my time and mental ammunition firing on my own. I'd rather spend it on the left. I think that as well-meaning as they may be, they're a far greater hazard to a free republic than anybody on this side. This is a big tent. You
will hit the sides of the tent or run out the flap if you go far enough, but there's plenty of common ground inside. In any case, it's Mr. Robinson's neighborhood. The rest of us are just guests here. If he can put up with the chaos that occasionally goes on here, and (I'm not saying this to butter up the host) my impression is that he does so with extremely good grace, so can I.
Something changed Tuesday. Somebody came into my country, our country, and launched a diabolically bold and brutal attack on it. And you know what? I can pretty much assure you they didn't ask what political party, or political school of thought the crew or passengers on those planes belonged to. Nor would they have asked the people in the WTC towers or the Pentagon if they could. They didn't care. The people on the planes...the people in the buildings...the people who came to help after the attacks? The enemy. The Great Satan, if you will. All of them. And all of us. Bushie, Buchananite, Keyester, McCainiac, paleocon, neocon, just plain con, globalist, isolationist, Constitutionalist, libertarian, or for that matter, New Dem, Old Dem or leftist...we're all just meat to those guys. Pigmeat, if the bad guys are who we suspect. Something to think about. I know it's on my mind.
So if you have a beef with how Bush or the government does its job, fair enough. If you have a disagreement with some of the others here, have at it. But think of what I said and try to be kind. Try not to say anything you might regret if something happened to the official you're talking about, or the other poster. Because the sad truth you have to keep in mind after last Tuesday is that something could.