What is the difference between the two? And I'm not talking about someone having more liberal views or conservative views and constantly voting that way in an election. That's a person's constitutional right to do so. I'm talking about the terms democrat and republican. They've basically become the same as n*****, sp***, ch***, yadda yadda yadda. I'm talking about how there are citizens in our country who hear that someone is a democrat and automatically dislike that person, much the same as someone would have automatically hated a black person back in the 40s.

Just like some people were genuinely happy when Malcolm X or MLK, Jr. got shot, there are many people who are happy when things go bad in our country with Dubya in office. It's like it's a race to see who can be the first person to gleefully post news about our country that we should not be excited about. I'm sure if we elect a liberal in '08, there will be others just as happy to do the same, so please don't think I'm attacking one group or the other. It's just that with all the political debates going on lately(which I must admit liven up the boards quite a bit), I've seen an awful lot of generalizations, preconceived notions, personal attacks, and name calling. It truly does remind me of Alabama back in 1948 or something to that effect.

How is disliking someone for their political party different than disliking someone for the color of their skin? And please spare me any, we don't dislike them, we just disagree, because I have seen some serious, psychotic, fucking hatred(to steal a term from Carlin) going on at both this board and throughout the country.

Now I know that not everyone is like that, in fact the majority of Americans don't feel that way toward members of opposite political parties. But most people aren't racists either, yet racism is completely frowned upon, rightly so, while politicism is considered to be a wonderful example of our American freedom. What am I missing?