Your "take" on the situation is accurate, and I'm delighted you decided to address the issue.
It's not all about Bowser.......the ramifications of the name calling around here are INDEED a microscopic portion of what is happening in America right now.
I know that Bowser is outrageous at times. I think he can be hysterically funny, if you look at it from a contrarian point of view.
He also does because he CAN, and because it's just his knee jerk re-action to your (the boards') knee-jerk re-action.
I see your main complaints are that he just doesn't "get it".
His main complaint is that YOU just don't "get it".

Having been your favorite "nut", "wacko", "idiot" for so many years, I finally can say I'm glad I'm no longer the center of attention and that someone else is getting you all riled up.
Right now Bowser's defending himself to the death with you guys, like I had to do. Sorta like some HZ initiation rite or something.
He has his right to THROW BACK AT YOU, what you throw at HIM.
But, because this is "your" territory, you feel can demean him and kick him around.

Remember, us liberals nearly left here in droves, and only occasionally stood up to you. You whimper when we're gone. We have learned that you appreciate us being here, so let us speak our piece ........er, peace.

>"When I look at the Flames traffic for the last few months, it seems that anti-Bowser threads predominate. What's different about those threads is that they're much less about Bowser's behavior than his positions and ideas."

Position and ideas.
Anyone care to comment about that?

>"But also, my impression is that the quality of Bowser's posts has declined recently: More strident, blunt, less well-argued and more like simply striking out. "

I was also noted as having taken this direction, but it was in self-defense!
I think this is natural when everyone just gangs up on you and dismisses your posts.
I saw the ones on Ronald Reagan, and I posted elsewhere not in his defense with dripping accolades, but with the sarcasm and contempt I see with the politicians serving the CIA clique and their "foreign policies" of genocide.

>"As the drumbeat for war has increased in frenzy, the conservative majority has become more belligerent and combative, emboldened, I think, by the notion that their views are finally being shared by a majority of Americans. More willing to shout down contrary views and label them as "anti-American". More knee-jerk jingoism, as it seems that there's little room for debate, the die is cast, and all that's left is to root for Bush and our military."

Wow, Robert, you really hit the nail on the head here.
Although I could "feel" it, I really couldn't have put it into words as you did.
EVERYWHERE you go, you encounter those who are passionate (or ignorant) about the possibilities of WAR. Nobody considers that it could get out of hand, where one Superpower or one nuclear power twarts or threatens OUR missions or directives, and pulls the WORLD and everyone in it towards a nuclear showdown. Make the Cuban Missile Crisis look like chump change, and I remember that day ever so clearly.

>"I think that you conservatives are using ad homineum attacks on Bowser to avoid having to address the substantive issues raised by his posts (however ineptly he's been expressing them lately)."

I would agree with you here Robert, but others will still think he's an idiot and defer to you because you're one of the moderators here.
Thank God you lean to the left and feel some political and personal morality. If YOU weren't here, I think the rest of the liberals would have left by now. Left them to their "circle jerk".
(And thanks Fox, for telling me it was you who coined that phrase for "them", as I broke out laughing at the very thought of it. Of course, you know if we're not careful, they'll be accusing us of the same!)

>"Why would those of us who love America but disagree with the current government's policies want to be branded "anti-American" and "traitors"? "Fool"? "Idiot"? "Leg-humper"?
There's a sense of danger here, .......think about the extent to which you're using Bowser as a whipping boy, the proxy for anybody who might dare to disagree with you.....You folks have gotten downright scary the last few months."

This type of jingoism is a type of religious fervor based on fears and political affiliations.
I have discussed this before, and even more recently with my "religious conversion" post over on the Community board. Encountering such strong personalities, in favor of an all-out, bust-up, clean-out type of war, INCLUDING calling some Americans traitors who won't support the war, is electrifying.
For if we get in deep enough, then those who don't want MAD (mutually assured destruction), will become the enemy.

>"If you really consider yourselves patriots, you have a duty to consider the possibility that you're wrong and might be leading our country into disaster. "

Okay, Robert, what district are you running in, and where can I sign up for your campaign?
;~)