# Is America more harshly divided than ever? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 10, 2006, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-america-more-harshly-divided-than-ever/375945 "2006-10-10T16:46:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2006, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-america-more-harshly-divided-than-ever/375945/61 "2006-10-12T17:45:25Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] And my own father was a Republican like that, but they aren’t the ones in charge. The reasonable, tolerant Republicans have about as much influence on the party as the Log Cabin Republicans. [/QUOTE] Call them “the religious right”, “the loony right” or whatever. Don’t call them Republicans, because that’s insulting to moderate Republicans like my parents. The loony rightists may be in charge, but that doesn’t mean that all Republicans agree with them on everything. We’ve all voted for candidates we didn’t agree with on every issue- if we didn’t, we’d never be able to vote for anybody. > [@Evil One](#): > > > [@Evil Captor](#): > > > > “Big meanie?” > > I’ll bet you and I could sit down and find areas of common ground. I’ll say you could- you’ve got the same first name 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/45deac/32.png) [@Evil\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_One)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2006, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-america-more-harshly-divided-than-ever/375945/62 "2006-10-12T19:02:33Z")
Methinks Evil Captor doth protest too much…(wink) ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2006, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-america-more-harshly-divided-than-ever/375945/63 "2006-10-12T20:13:17Z")
[QUOTE=Evil One] Methinks Evil Captor doth protest too much…(wink) [/QUOTE] If he’s often mistaken for you, I can see why. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2006, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-america-more-harshly-divided-than-ever/375945/64 "2006-10-13T13:55:11Z")
**Der Trihs** , do you actually _know_ any Republicans? Not just on messageboards, but in real life? The conservatives I know (and love) are not “bigots, amoral capitalists, or religious fanatics.” Yes, there are plenty of whackaloon Republicans, but heaven knows, there are plenty of whackaloon Democrats, too. The folks I know, regardless of where we fall on the spectrum, feel like we’re supporting the lesser of two evils. Our lesser evils just differ from one another’s. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2006, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-america-more-harshly-divided-than-ever/375945/65 "2006-10-13T15:42:18Z")
[QUOTE=burundi] **Der Trihs** , do you actually _know_ any Republicans? Not just on messageboards, but in real life? [/quote] My father, as I said. [QUOTE=burundi] The conservatives I know (and love) are not “bigots, amoral capitalists, or religious fanatics.” Yes, there are plenty of whackaloon Republicans, but heaven knows, there are plenty of whackaloon Democrats, too. The folks I know, regardless of where we fall on the spectrum, feel like we’re supporting the lesser of two evils. Our lesser evils just differ from one another’s. [/QUOTE] As I’ve said, it doesn’t really matter if I’m right or not about the “whackaloons” being the majority; what matters is that they run the party, and have for as long as I can remember. As far as the “lesser of two evils” go, when I look at what the Republicans have done and are trying to do, I have no interest in compromising someone who considers, say, a national health care plan and gay marriage a worse evil than the Iraq war. And as I’ve said over and over, I don’t believe the Republicans _will_ compromise, given any choice at all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-america-more-harshly-divided-than-ever/375945.md?page=3)