I'm sure you're better off for not taking politics so serously, Jody.
The "slimy factor" was a moment of painful self-consiousness, like CJB's on this thread, realizing that we were behaving a lot like the people we're criticizing.
Up above, Lee used language that to my ear is brutal and violent (and ironically thuggish), but then I went and slapped him around a bit myself, calling him a liar and implying that he's a fool, and basically being as gratuitously insulting as he was being. In the clear cold light of day the next day I read my words and was embarrassed.
That's what I meant by the "slimy factor": I felt like I'd let myself be pulled down into the squishy green.