"Tom Ivar Helbekkmo" wrote in message
...
jim rozen writes:

Liberals are evil.

There it is. The entire US political
process reduced to black and white in
one sentence.

It looks even funnier from the outside. Over here, we have about a
dozen political parties, ranging from the Norwegian Communist Party on
the left, to the Progress Party on the (far) right. Big parties in
the center are the Conservative Party, the Worker's Party, and the
Christian Democrats. The latter now lead a coalition government, so
our current Prime Minister is a priest. Political debates can get
heated, certainly, but there is healthy respect for differing opinions.

Seen from our point of view, your Democrats and Republicans are very
similar, both representing a conservative, mostly libertarian view.
In fact, Gore Vidal's characterization seems apt: he claims that you
have a single political party, with two right wings. ;-)

In light of this, the level of enmity displayed by adherents to each
seems downright comical to us. I can only assume that the people who
spew the vitriol are extremists, and not representative of the average
American. Certainly, the impression conveyed in news media, and in
online fora like this one, does not match my own experience from two
years living in the USA.

You don't usually see guys like strabo and Strider during the week. They
show up on Saturdays and Sundays, when they're home on a weekend pass.

Ed Huntress