Bucco & Keedy make interesting observations, and parts are valid, but also apply to both sides of the spectrum. First the Dems/Liberals: Many of us are still very involved with political/social issues, but it's pretty clear to all but the most hard-headed (knock-knock) of us that answering attacks on this Board or in the Daily Sun serves no useful purpose since the "opposition" simply screams louder, twists reality, or simply have their minds made up.

Energy is much better spent focusing on those newly elected officials and the promised policies than in refuting idiotic comments like "Obama is a socialist-marxist-fascist-Muslim."

I'm even finding that MSNBC, which is just a counterbalance to the stupidity on FOX & EIB, gets annoyingly vindictive and sarcastic, now that the Dems. won so decisively in 2008.

On the other side, those few screamers like Ruthie Kelly, Joe Angione, Anne Coulter and Rush agitate a minority of right-wing meat-eaters. Admittedly, this group is larger than any other "unified" group in the nation, but they still represent a small minority of the overall population. That's why Reps. may get a red-meat candidate in the primaries, but that candidate is rejected by the majorityof voters in a general election. Rick Santorum is the prime example of this trend.

Conservatives could energize the base by throwing out "wedge" issues- scaring apathetic people into going to the polls to stop the abortionists, the death tax, the homosexual agenda, the attack on families, etc. etc.

But like all flashy fireworks, the ooh-ahh fades.
-Many people began to see that those issues really don't hinge on the individual or party elected, and were really just distractions for important issues confronting our nation. Consider a national party making "Joe the Plumber" and a wacko minister the center of an ENTIRE national campaign. And Joe wasn't even a real plumber and Wright wasn't running for President!

-Many people found that the excessive control of the Religious Right and ultra-conservatives crossed lines of decency, attacking candidates by innuendoes about patriotism, race, "family values" and the like. The more Ruthie Kelly screams about this being a "Christian" country, the more the moderates, the secular Christians and people who just don't agree with that radicalism are turned off. The more conservative free-marketeers claimed that unfettered Capitalism is some holy gift from God, the more people who were hurt by the irresponsible and illegal behavior of the wealthiest CEO's, lobbyists and politicians turned away from that ideology.

-Finally, once you've passed an anti-gay marriage bill, or a flag burning bill, or an "In God We Trust" amendment, those who voted out of conviction end up being apathetic or uninformed, and may not be motivated to vote again. That's why parties pick up tangible causes, not generalities. Now it's general "teabagging" instead of trying to talk intelligently about specific tax issues. It's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" rather than pushing general gay-rights issues.

People have only so much energy. After eight years of head-banging, Dems and liberals address concerns about their issues to those they elected, not to those who want a re-match.

Am I ignorant or am I apathetic? I don't know, and I don't care.