yeaaa!

[VeloVT]

I'm truly sorry if I have offended anyone. I don't know if anyone has me on ignore; I hope not, that would make me really sad. I mean well.

However, I can't imagine how difficult it must be to survive in the world every day if you are intimidated by someone having a different view than you. As adults, I think we should be able to accept that we will have differences.

And as for this political discussion -- I think it's perfectly fine for anyone to disagree with Obama on policy issues (reasonable, smart people disagree all of the time), and also fine for anyone to express a wish that McCain had won. Of course there will be disagreement on what is good for this country. However, to suggest that Obama is a fascist who will turn the USA into a police state ("The first steps will be to suppress any opposition, then the civilian security force, then who knows") is not substantive political disagreement, it looks dangerously close to baseless hate-mongering. If you can offer a convincing justification for that view, though, you might be able to get me to change my mind. That's the thing about political discussions -- every view is admissable, but every view is also fair game. You have to be willing to accept those terms not only for others' views, but also for your own. Maybe that IS a form of discussion that TE cannot handle -- and I guess that's OK -- but I also think we all need to have thicker skins sometimes.

Originally posted by Jobob:
Oh, and thank you to those who have posted here and on various other threads the little snarks about whether or not it's "allowed" to discuss politics on this forum - you know who you are.

you're welcome, Jobob !