And now for some terrifically wise words (as usual) from Michael Kinsley, as he with tongue-firmly-in-cheek puts into perspective just which side of the political aisle the arrogant, judgmental elite reside (hint: not the Dems side), by addressing the GW base:

At the moment, though, one side of the great divide is being called upon for something closer to abjection than mere reconciliation.

So, yes, okay, fine. I'm a terrible person -- barely a person at all, really, and certainly not a real American -- because I voted for the losing candidate on Tuesday. If you insist -- and you do -- I will rethink my fundamental beliefs from scratch because they are shared by only 47 percent of the electorate.

And please let me, or any other liberal, know if there is anything else we can do to abase ourselves. Abandon our core values? Pander to yours? Not a problem. Happy to do it. Anything, anything at all, to stop this shower of helpful advice.

There's just one little request I have. If it's not too much trouble, of course. Call me profoundly misguided if you want. Call me immoral if you must. But could you please stop calling me arrogant and elitist?

I mean, look at it this way. (If you don't mind, that is.) It's true that people on my side of the divide want to live in a society where women are free to choose abortion and where gay relationships have full civil equality with straight ones. And you want to live in a society where the opposite is true. These are some of those conflicting values everyone is talking about. But at least my values -- as deplorable as I'm sure they are -- don't involve any direct imposition on you. We don't want to force you to have an abortion or to marry someone of the same gender, whereas you do want to close out those possibilities for us. Which is more arrogant?

We on my side of the great divide don't, for the most part, believe that our values are direct orders from God. We don't claim that they are immutable and beyond argument. We are, if anything, crippled by reason and open-mindedness, by a desire to persuade rather than insist. Which philosophy is more elitist? Which is more contemptuous of people who disagree?

He makes the point I recently made to a right-wing friend. The primary difference between the two sides is one wants to allow for freedoms to conduct oneself as one sees fit, whereas the other side wants to restrict such freedoms simply because that side believes they are wrong, and therefore all citizens should be forced to comply. Call me crazy but I thought true conservatives once stood for allowing more freedoms through less restrictions. I wonder where and when things deviated (hmm, could it have something to do with -- religion?).