…as it were.
Is “Boy, I’m glad you don’t live in my electoral district” a flame, when used in the context of a political discussion?
Depends on who’s talking to whom. If a voter says to another voter, “Boy, I’m glad you don’t live in my electoral district!”, it’s a flame.
If, however, a voter says it to a politician, it’s a sigh of relief. “Boy, I’m glad you don’t live in my electoral district!”
But if the politician says it to the voter, it’s political suicide, because the voter’s mother does live there.
I think it depends on the context. If it’s in the middle of a personal attack, I would say it’s probably meant as an insult. On the other hand, if it’s in the middle of a political discussion, I would say it was a recognition of how far apart you are from the speaker in political views. That is to say, “If you were in my district, you’d be basically cancelling out my vote.”
It may hurt your feelings that someone disagrees with your position so strongly, but I would say that if that’s a flame, it’s a pretty damn mild one. Particularly if compared to something like, “You bleeding liberals make me want to fucking puke.”
-VM
Yeah I’d have to agree it depends on the context.
“Boy, I’m glad you don’t live in my electoral district because then you’d have to drive 20 minutes to get to the nearest White Castle.” is hardly a flame.
And, of course, if you added the words, “…because then we’d be exceeding our federally mandated affirmative action guidelines on assholes, and would be liable to substantial civil penalties,” then I think it would definitely qualify as a flame.