Quote of the Week...from Charles Krauthammer

To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil.     
                                                                           Charles Krauthammer

Charles Krauthammer, who passed away just two weeks ago at the age of 68 from cancer, was one of America's foremost conservative commentators and writers, his career in this regard spanning four decades and seven U.S. presidents.  He originally had planned to be a physician and was attending Harvard Medical School when he had a life-changing accident while diving at a pool, permanently paralyzing him from the waist down.  That I had been completely unaware of his disability until just a year ago is a testament to those around him and Krauthammer himself, who above anything wanted his words to be considered for their own merit and not out of sympathy for his physical circumstances.  Since I don't watch Fox News Channel very much, I missed out on a lot of his input about the ongoing political scene.  I liked him, though, and am sad that he's gone...

As for Krauthammer's above quote, I kind of agree with it and I kind of don't.  It's true that from my perspective as a registered Democrat with a few conservative takes on various issues, I can look at those in opposition to my beliefs as being either stupid or evil...well evil is a bit strong, maybe insensitive, vindictive, or selfish might be better descriptions.  But I don't necessarily see this as distributed differently between conservatives and liberals.  The way I see it instead, if conservatives are in power and they're doing things liberals disapprove of, then some liberals will see them as evil...sure, especially nowadays with Trump running the show and all the different protest demonstrations that have been staged in the last couple of years.  And I think those protests, overwhelmingly for liberal causes, while making the participants feel like they're doing something positive to change things, really aren't changing anything...except maybe in their own minds...and I think that's foolish.  To really change things, liberals need to consistently and dutifully vote, vote, vote...and not just when some idol of theirs like Obama or Bernie is on the ballot...conservative voters understand this to a much greater degree and that's why they have been successful in off-year elections and in state-level races, securing legislative and gubernatorial control of most of the country's states...

Back when the Democrats had the power in the early years of the Obama administration, though, this seeing the other side as "stupid" or "evil" was reversed...let's face it, folks can get scared when their political opposition holds the reins of power and are more likely to ridicule them when their own side controls things.  More important, as I see it, is for people to begin to think for themselves and take each issue on its own merits instead of lining up in lock-step about everything with their party or professed political orientation.  But I'm a realist and know that the tendency is to treat it all like a game, one side winning and the other losing and we all want to be winners, right?...and how ridiculous people can get about loving or hating their leaders.  Let's face it: if the Democrats do make substantial gains this November's election, it will primarily be due to their success in generating negative passion among their voters against Trump, which I admit shouldn't be all that hard to do...