I couldn't find anything in your post with which I disagree. And you pointed out a bias of mine which I may not be able to justify.

While I can't speak for "liberals", I probably am one. It's easier for me to see the hostility of "conservatives" for a liberal point of view, and call it intolerance, than it is for me to see the liberal intolerance of conservatives in the same light. It is.

I'm reminded of students at Berkeley shouting down anyone with whom they disagreed, and that's not any different that Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on their bully pulpits. Hell, I remember myself at that age - tolerance was what one developed for drugs, not what one demonstrated of other political views.

On my limited behalf, I did say that -

The unwillingness to understand others, and what looks like a punitive reaction to people not just like themselves is a real downside to the right-wing, conservative political view. It can be said they have been hijacked by the religious fervor of a small element, but it seems pervasive.

Maybe I could have more precisely said that conservatives SEEM to shame liberals for their lives, for themselves, for their being. Liberals in my view seem to shame conservatives for what they think. It may be a small point, and there is a distinction there.

And, you make great points. Somehow the ordnance going out seems true, honest and just, while that coming in is cruel, mean and harsh. It undoubtedly all looks ridiculous to a neutral observer at 30,000 feet. And most of it is.

Arf