[MD] political harmony

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Marsha]
Is there a word that could be more opposite of compassion?   I don't 
think so. (schadenfreude)

[Arlo]
I'd say "sadism" is one step above "schadenfreude", for while 
schadenfreude refers to the passive delight we get when we see others 
suffer, sadists get their enjoyment from being the cause of other's suffering.

Democrats must find a way to begin a path of empathy, it would be too 
easy (and ultimately self-destructive) to follow a path of returning 
in kind. Years of dealing with the most ridiculous of vitriolic 
bombardment may make many a little less than enthusiastic about 
treating their tormentors with compassion (as in the case with Platt, 
it is somewhat difficult to take the boohoos of the schoolyard bully 
seriously, and in many ways it appears to be karmic justice), but 
this is the direction everyone needs to go if we ever hope to live in 
a world outside of the moronic bombast of the ideologues. But the 
entrenched whose power derives from Nightmare Politics will, as you 
will see, continue to stir vitriol and hate and fear from both sides 
of the discourse, and I see the bitter divide in America becoming 
even more bitter. Americans no longer disagree with their neighbors, 
the fear and hate their neighbors, they are "the enemy", a threat, a 
problem, the root of all evil and problems in the world. Sean 
Hannity's tagline yesterday was "America Under Siege". Under siege? 
Are the 50%+ who voted Obama NOT part of "America"? They are "an 
outside threat" to the "real America" of Palin's divisive portrayal 
of the only real American's being those who agree with her. Democrats 
like Murtha fair no better by ridiculing those who'd disagree with 
him as rednecks. And it is with this rhetoric we will likely live for 
quite sometime.