The tension here on DU is just a symptom of our frustration. However, the "you are with us or against us" meme is a Neo-Con tactic and is a dangerous road.

Since DU has the wonderful new Journal feature, I noticed while adding some of my previous posts that I could be considered a "flip-flopper". I had one post saying "we should all vote Dem this election", and I had another post saying "I am proud that Dems can't agree, because it proves that we are Independent Thinkers".

To be honest, I still think that we need to maintain our Independent Thinking. However, if we want to accomplish something, we have to learn to COMPROMISE. Our nation was built on compromise. The Constitution is nothing more than a series of compromises.

When 2 sides take opposing positions, usually the Truth lies somewhere in between. When both parties can come to a compromise, the compromise is usually much closer to the Truth than either side.

All of us here on DU are very passionate about our beliefs. That's why we are here. But no one here will argue against the fact that our nation is under attack from within, and that the very foundations of our Democracy are at stake. If we want to reach a viable strategy we need to be able to discuss the issues dispassionately and learn to find a working compromise that we all can live with and support.

At the same time, we must realize that every now and then everyone just needs to "vent". All of us sooner or later come to DU to vent their frustrations, because we know we are among friends and at least someone here will sympathize with our frustrations.

However, after we have vented our frustrations, we all need to just "let them go" and figure out a way to work together to solve this mess that our country is in. In extreme circumstances, sometimes the old adage "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" is a very useful axiom.

So, let's all vent our frustrations and get them out of our systems, then apologize to those you've pissed off, and have a group hug. And then decide TOGETHER just what the hell we're going to do to solve this mess TOGETHER. NOBODY is going to be 100% happy - except maybe the RW'ers if we can't learn to work together. We need to "prioritize." Let's solve the immediate problems, and then we can argue among ourselves on the minor details.

Questioning someone else's dedication is counter-productive. "You are with us or against us" is a Karl Rove tactic. Don't fall into that trap.