When you have run out of ideas and are too stubborn to communicate with your political adversaries

[RadiationTherapy]

then violence is your only answer and you are a fascist - no longer suited to the rigors of a democracy.

In my opinion, we are on the verge of fascism because neither side has any respect or tolerance of the other. Perhaps this will be a hallmark of the terminal stage of a democratic empire?

[no_hypocrisy]

1. When you've never had any ideas and never intended to compromise

and only want unbridled power, you're a Fascist.

[TheKentuckian]

2. "The other side" has run amok for more than a generation

intent on extracting wealth from the many for the few, eroding our civil liberties, and prosecuting insane wars that drain resources while openly espousing the desire to drawn the government in a bathtub and actively promoting theocracy and you think they aren't ideologically bankrupt or that they should be "tolerated or respected"? Are you stark raving mad?

Did you miss their intransigence as our fold-a-matic "leaders" do nothing but push their recycled policies and give them further influence without a solitary vote?

What the hell are you smoking? Negotiation involves finding ways to give them not only what they say they want but more than their most piggish dreams. They have repeatedly turned on their own proposals even.
The pile of platitudes in the OP are what one would expect from a child that hasn't paid a lick of attention and has little or no idea of what should be done.

[RadiationTherapy]

4. Tolerance and respect is something that goes beyond politics and policy.

We mock how they look. We mock what they do for fun. We mock what they believe. We mock what they care about. It is all reciprocated, of course, but has little to do with anything relevant.

[TheKentuckian]

8. Only by ignoring policy and it's real world effects can you keep playing this Pollyanna

above the fray nonsense.

They have had their way for decades and it has brought great ruin and internal rot. This is not about opinions, reality gets a vote.

[RadiationTherapy]

9. Well, Mr. Kentucky, I ain't killin nobody.

I ain't gonna take away kids and "re-educate" them either, so what exactly non-fascist ideas do you have to address conservative philosophy? We talk or we lose.

[TheKentuckian]

10. Telling the truth about policies and their results isn't any relation to fascism

Not legitimizing or even de-legitimizing bad and failed policies isn't fascism.

Resisting said policies isn't fascism either.

What does not accepting failed and disastrous nonsense have to do with killing or re-education camps?
What a silly tangent. In fact, there is nothing peace loving or freedom enhancing about giving the tired TeaPubliKlan (formally Bircher) ideology any credence because their aims are fascism and massive funneling of all resources into the hands of the wealthy few.

The opposite of fascism isn't meeting the Brown Shirts half way and speaking respectfully to them.

What exactly is it that you want to "talk" to them about? A negotiation on civil rights? Scaling back civil liberties? A middle ground on resource wars? A constructive conversation on dismantling Social Security and Medicare? Gaining a few chestnuts of wisdom on how to eliminate public education? How about a dialog on ending the minimum wage and other methods to obliterate wages?

I'm serious, what aspect of their agenda is worth exploring? Is it cutting free and reduced lunches or letting industry treat our waters like a poorly maintained outhouse? Or is voter disenfranchisement seem like a worthy "bipartisan" aim?

Not to mention they have been doing their very best Godzilla through Tokyo imitation for decades to the point we are at now is essentially giving up on progress and celebrating when we avoid further implementing what is an insane agenda? Even if we start splitting the difference today we will only find ourselves in a deeper pit than we are in today with less self determination and greater poverty for our people with a savaged and depleted habitat with precious little hope for a better tomorrow?

There is no rational end to splitting the difference with absurdity and little hope for improvement at all by even continuing to entertain the insane and obviously dangerous.

I note also that you still outright refuse to deal with the reality of the opposition's aims, policies, and results, opting for hyperbole and downright silliness to maintain allegiance to platitudes.
That is setting aside the absolute pretense that we haven't been doing as you call for for decades with pitiful returns.

[RadiationTherapy]

11. I am not forcing people to live how I want them to.

I am not going to exclude groups of people from democracy. I am not going to re-educate people. I am not going to "round em up and ship em out". Communication is the only non-fascist solution, so I focus on that.

[emulatorloo]

3. You have a point, but PLEASE NO FALSE EQUIVALENCIES. See these articles if you haven't already:

"Dysfunctional" Too Polite to Describe Tea Party Congress
By Joe Conason

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_joe_conason/dysfunctional_too_polite_to_describe_tea_party_congress

=====

Never underestimate the power of (Republican) spite
By Steve Benen

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x720121

[RadiationTherapy]

5. I will read these later, thank you for sharing.

I didn't mean to create a false equivalency. I have encountered several liberals who believe conservatives need to be abandoned, re-educated, or eliminated.

I do believe the right is "closer to the edge" than the left, but it is the lack of options that worries me about potential fascism.

[emulatorloo]

6. In the old days, I found it easy to talk policy issues with conservatives. Right now,

I still find it easy to talk policy with rational conservatives. There are indeed some out there.

The problem is that the Republican Party has embraced Extremists. demagogues on talk radio/Fox, etc.

They have brought the fringe element to the fore and legitimized it. We have always had "True Believers" like this on the fringe. But the GOP and the News Media legitimized them this time.

When the Republican Party was flirting with the John Birch Society. William Buckley stood up and said NO. These people are fringe and dangerous. Republicans listened to him and backed away.

There are several Conservative voices that said the same thing about the Tea Party, like David Frum. This time Republicans "excommmunicated" people like David Frum.


Anyway that's my take on it.

[RadiationTherapy]

7. I only suggest to "keep talking" because these people are out there.

And the media has given them a voice. We can't squash this in any other way and stay America.