As you well know, LOD, I am not among those on this board who defend acts of state terrorism simply because a president of "my" political party is initiating them. You have seen this quite clearly from me consistently over the years, so I am confident that you believe my opposition to unAmerican behavior from American politicians is strong.

Nevertheless, I can honestly see Sheepy's point here. And I see it for the same reason that I oppose undemocratic actions by American politicians regardless of which political party they belong to, and why I do not align myself with the Democratic Party and strive to be a 'Good Democrat' as Glenn Greenwald calls them. And that reason, as I have said before in the past few days, and numerous times in the past, is this:

We have to be on a higher moral plane than our enemies. We have to represent ideals and principles that they lack in their relentless attacks on us. If we fail to do this, then we create a conflict where both sides are equally corrupt, and neither side possesses the moral/ethical high ground. This is not to say that we have no right to be angry and upset over how they treat us, and how much harm they have supported and brought down upon us. But it does mean that we need to funnel that anger into positive and productive channels, and not to let it segue into bitterness and hatred on our end as well as theirs. We need to pity them, not hate them in return. And we need to reserve our hatred for the concepts of bigotry and intolerance in and of themselves, but not the people behind them, who are suffering from internal demons that we need to avoid embracing ourselves regardless of the temptation. The more we become like them, the closer they come to proving that we are no better than they are, and we can't afford to let ourselves succumb to this, no matter what they do to us.

If a certain extremist anti ended up in jail or sued successfully for their behavior, I would cheer. But if one of them was shot in the head in a pre-meditated fashion that didn't involve self-defense, or suddenly suffered a stroke? No, I would not cheer, because we need to empathize even with our enemies, and we are well aware that behind their mental cesspool of hatred is a human being who has family that loves them and doesn't generally see the side of them that they expose to us.

I hope hearing this from me will make some difference, and thank you for listening, as always.