Debating Republicans is like playing chess with a pigeon...

[MannyGoldstein]

[Cleita]

1. Good one!

Happy to K&R

[Thinkingabout]

2. K & R

If you told a Republican this then it would take you the rest of the day to explain it to them.

[Bobbie Jo]

4. lol

Right?

[mercymechap]

3. Bwahahahaha......

that is so funny, I wish I had said it.......

[Donald Ian Rankin]

5. ...and people wonder why American politics is polarised.

I'm 100% certain that Republicans feel exactly the same way, mutatis mutandis. It wouldn't surprise me if this exact same slogan were doing the rounds with "Republican" replaced by "Democrat".

If you're not talking to people who disagree with you, you can't expect them to change their minds.

Conversely, if you don't talk to people who disagree with you, your ability to think critically decays. There's nothing more dangerous to your intellectual health than an echo chamber.

[MannyGoldstein]

6. Is it possible that one side's right and the other is wrong?

Are there Democratic equivalents to these folks:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017171198

[Donald Ian Rankin]

7. Possible yes, relevant no.

To answer your second question, I know of no prominent Democrats who have said things which I consider as objectionable as some of the ones you list (although Andrew Cuomo was recently in the same league as some of them, and selection bias means I'm less likely to see a "Democrat says controversial thing" story than a "Republican says controversial thing" story). There are, however, prominent Democrats who have said things which many Republicans consider as objectionable as I consider some of those statements. So it depends what you mean by "equivalent".

[godevil10]

9. And in these words lies a significant weakness of DU.

"Conversely, if you don't talk to people who disagree with you, your ability to think critically decays. There's nothing more dangerous to your intellectual health than an echo chamber."

Well said sir!

[bvar22]

8. I believe this could be generalized from just Republicans...

...to Conservatives of any stripe.