Excellent Responses...

This was the first response to the post "Let's get this started..." Thanks for the input.

i did get a chance to see the blog (awesome photo) and i read the jesus camp entry. i too struggle with the issue you bring up; if being liberal means being open-minded and respecting diversity, how do we reconcile that with the instinct to eschew the Sarah Palins of the world? (name omitted) and I talk a couple times a week, on the phone and in-person. He's conservative, and voted for McCain, etc. I treasure my friendship with him for reasons beyond politics, obviously, but i enjoy our political discussions, because he is a real person with principles who is trying to muddle through the media mess just like me. I guess my point is any political philosophy is in danger of being turned into a two-dimensional cartoon when its major exposure comes from such obviously partisan sources, e.g your Fox news and your Huffington Posts of the world. Unfortunately I believe this media influence is also changing the norms of how we interact with people who are different from us- feeding this idea that "if you disagree with me it is because you hate America, or because you are ignorant and stupid!" Now if we can just get all those stupid ignorami to listen to us...