Watching political coverage these days, the thing that strikes me more than ever, and I bet you too, is all the partisan bullshit. Witness the left’s continuing ‘Bush lied’ riffs, the ‘it’s all about oil,’ ‘unilateralist,’ ‘only cares about rich people,’ and ‘stole the election,’ to name a few. Add the instantaneous spin that followed the Berger leak and the hero-worship of a certain gigantic pus bag… actually let’s skip that last one. [Geez, it’s like a train wreck. I want to stop looking but…]

Of course the GOP’s been at it too. Take the FMA, for one. Happily the ‘second choice’ crowing (when Kerry named Edwards as his VP) died out quickly. [And honestly, did anyone believe for a second that McCain would accept? He held up a crucifix and started chanting in Latin the second Kerry showed up.] Speaking of that, you better believe that it’s gonna be a lot worse, in the other direction, when (if) Cheney finally steps down.
So both sides are guilty of this stuff, and of course they always have been. It’s just that the Dems (left, liberals, whatever) have been a lot more strident and made a lot less sense lately. Enter Dean Esmay with a challenge to conservatives. In the event of a Kerry victory in November, can you forgo the nastiness that’s flying around on the Left these days (and was preceded by similar stuff, in the other direction, during the Clinton years)? Dean says he can, and he will.

“I will refuse to call him traitor, loser, liar, incompetent. He will be my
President, my Commander In Chief, the Chief Executive of a great nation, elected
by the will of a majority of the electors in these 50 great United States. So
even if he does things I disagree with in conducting foreign policy, I will say,
‘I respectfully disagree with the President's directions, but I will do my best
to express my dissent respectfully and hope that I am mistaken and that he has
made the proper decisions after all.’”

See, I’m counting on a Bush win this year because, as I’ve stated before, I just don’t trust the Johns to prosecute the war properly. Tough talk in convention speeches notwithstanding, the Senators’ voting records, their need to make a distinction between themselves and Bush, and the anti-Bush hysteria of the loony left make me very uneasy. [If only they’d nominated Lieberman!] However, should Bush lose, I will also get behind Kerry. And hope for the best. I won’t resort to name-calling. I won’t rely on empty rhetoric and ignore new information. I won’t go overseas and badmouth my countrymen for electing him. I will be positive, hopeful, and respectful.

Will you? If enough of us are, maybe we can put an end to all the bickering and have a real conversation again.

- posted by Dactyl @ 7:12 PM