At least for me:

It is impossible to have a nuanced discussion in which one is critical of the Left, because no discussion takes place, just a verbal artillary barrage.

The Right is right, all the time every time. Any agreement with any right-wing position is crowed over as a "victory" or a "conversion". It is neither, and it makes me bristle with anger, so I keep those opinions at bay.

The Left is Satan. Any agreement by the Right with a position originally or traditionally affiliated with the Left is a "misunderstanding" of the Right's "original" or "essential" position, which varies in view of the fact that there is the Economic Right (Capital Is King), the Libertarian Right (Get Outta My Face), and the Fundamentalist Right (My God Trumps The Constitution).

Do I think that Saddam was a good and beneficent ruler? No. Was I embarrassed and infuriated when my country stood aside and left the insurgents to his tender mercies after encouraging them to revolt? Hell, yes.

Am I still furious that our current President has either lied or concealed information concerning his reasons for invading a sovereign country that had basically been outfitted and enabled by us over the years? YES. Do I trust him to know how to fix the mess that that enabling and his concealment created? NO. Do I think the Iraqis ought to be handed the keys to the burning house and an IOU for a fire extinguisher while we get in our shiny red trucks and drive home? NO. Does that mean I support this administration's efforts in the Love It Or Leave It tradition of the Right? NO!

Am I sick to fucking death of hearing from the Right how everything that is wrong with the world is Bill Clinton's fault in spite of the fact that Saddam was armed and supported by the Reagan Administration as a counterbalance to Iran? YES.

I'll tell you something, sir. When I began reading here, I was a moderate with liberal tendencies. The longer I stay, having my beliefs and ideas derided and mocked, and reading the inflexible tirades of the Right, along with the crowing about dismantling of "the government bureaucracy" except as benefits the Right's supporters (cf. defense and reconstruction contracts and how they are distributed; cf. looting following deregulation as the night follows the day), the more radicalized I have become. And not in the direction you would like.

It's a natural reaction for me: someone pushes, I push back. If I yield a point, it's treated as a victory and used as a weapon against me. If I make one, there's a tirade or a twist. To be fair to you, Tom, you have gracefully yielded several times, maybe even enough so that I would have to move from fingers to toes to count them all.

I remind you all: the Left, though it looks forward to a changed society, is basically a reactive movement in this country. It rose in response to myriad abuses of power by capitalists, entrenched political machines, racists and other nationalist bigots. The institutions that the Left labored to turn to their causes have also corrupted them in like fashion. The Right is not necessarily better, but the Left has become worse. Pointing out that your opponent is dirty while standing in the sty is not equivalent to cleanliness.

Crowing does not now, nor will it ever, encourage a sensible discussion.

I don't like what coming here is doing to my way of thinking. I'm not sure what to do about it yet. However, if anyone suggests that I "convert", expect a sharp stick in the eye...