Yikes.
Look here - I'm neither a rightie nor a leftie. Which lets me look at the partisan fray in a slightly more objective manner.
I'm a libertarian (small l), and at the moment I lean right because the left in this country is (way) over the top.
And, I will speak only for myself. (Not for "the right" - don't blame anything I say on "the right", that wouldn't be fair).
As an independent occasionally neutral country, I get bombed by both sides in the partisan war. The lefties don't like me because I get in their face about "tolerance", and the righties don't like me because I get in their face about the moralism attached to religion.
Here's what I see clearly, plain as day:
The partisan war isn't about priorities.
It's about BOUNDARIES.
The other side is "evil" because they "trample on our boundaries".
For the left, an example of a boundary might be, mistreating people because of their skin color, or their gender. Lefties want lefties to be treated as individuals - at the same time they lump all the righties together and call them "evil". Why? Because there is a perception of boundaries being violated.
For the right, an example of a boundary might be, don't talk about alternative lifestyles to my 5 year old kid. Righties are (justifiably, in most cases) scared of eccentric social influences. They call it "brainwashing". SOMETIMES, they engage in brainwashing themselves, by sending their kids to Sunday school in the name of a "proper moral upbringing".
Before anyone jumps on me for saying that, I will state plainly: I am Christian. My whole family is. We, however, draw a very clear line of demarcation between religion and politics. "We" (and I) detest political moralism, in all its forms. As far as we're concerned, the purpose of politics is running the country, not dictating morality or social policy.
So, "I" am not going to get in any lefty's face about abortion. I do believe it's murder, but I'm not going to come after you POLITICALLY for it - as far as I'm concerned if you're going to kill your baby that's between you and your conscience or your God, you're the one who's going to have to live with it.
I am "careful", not to trample on this particular BOUNDARY, of the left, because I'm aware that it IS a boundary, and I don't want to be the bull in the china shop destroying all the carefully painted china.
And, at the end of the day, I resonate with the principle underlying the boundary, which is: my body, my rules. No one has any right to reach into my body, and I try to apply that principle consistently, in areas like the drug laws, the weapons laws, and prostitution and other "moral" laws.
In my view, the same thing applies to eccentric sexual lifestyles, as applies to, say, prostitution. If you keep it out of sight, no one's going to complain. Really - NO ONE cares who or what you're banging (not even righties!) unless you're doing it IN PUBLIC IN FULL VIEW IF THE CHILDREN. You know? If you tone down the flamboyancy and pay a little attention to your surroundings, it isn't a problem.
What I'd like to see from both the right and left is a better understanding of the other sides' boundaries. For instance the left calls anyone that doesn't agree with them a racist or a homophobe, and that kind of stuff is so entirely stupid as to be completely ridiculous, it makes the person saying it look REALLY ******* STUPID. Which is why we get all the hybrid words ending in "tard".
My message to the progs is: shit or get off the pot. And I'm very damn sure, once the progressives are forced to look in the mirror they'll be running from that pot as fast as their legs can carry them. Lefties want gay people to be treated as individuals, but they refuse to treat righties that way. The hypocrisy reeks to high heaven.
As near as I can tell, the Democrats in this equation, have been bamboozled by a very small number of "progressives". Just like the Republicans were bamboozled by the Neo-Cond a few years ago. Once the torture became public it was all over for the Neo-Cons. (And by the way, the architect of that torture was John Brennan, the same ex-CIA director who's currently making a partisan asshole out of himself on behalf of the Democrats - "not" the Republicans of which he was a part when the torture happened).
This child endangerment issue is the same thing for the progressives - that's it, it's over. No one will go for social indoctrination around sex, no one but the most careless and incognizant of individuals.
The death blow for the Neo-Cons was when John McCain hugged George W Bush on stage. And, progressives are "just" touchy feely enough to repeat that mistake.
I would like to see a strong healthy and vibrant Democratic party. This one is not it. It's corrupt to the bone. In every way that matters