[MD] political harmony

[Arlo Bensinger]

[DMB]
I appreciate your generosity to some extent but it's wrong to assign 
equal blame to "both sides". To do so would be a case of "grotesque 
even-handedness".

[Arlo]
Fair enough, and I'd agree. I see nowhere near the hatred for McCain 
in "leftist" channels that I see for Obama in the "rightist" media. 
Indeed, I think (as I just wrote to KO) that one reason for Obama's 
win was his consistent rising above such deplorable rhetoric. And, 
going back over the elections of my lifetime, I have seen nowhere 
near the level of hatred and outright _fear_ being regurgitated and 
reinforced by media channels. My family were ardent Carter supports 
(I still am), but they never accused Ford of being malicious, 
traitorous, evil, an enemy of liberty, etc. Nor did I hear our 
neighbors at the time make such accusations about Carter. I recall 
very vocal political exchanges on the porch, heated even, but never 
once did it approach even the barest similarity to what I hear daily 
on the Hannity or Levin shows. As I said before, it must have been 
embarrassing for McCain to have to defend Obama during his own event 
from those whose level of involvement teeters on the insane. But as 
you correctly point out, this is the crowd pandered to and riled up 
by those who would exploit fear and xenophobia to advance their 
political agenda. My point was only that it is not a "all them, never 
us" issue.