and I really appreciate you being so focused, thoughtful and honest about it; it's a pleasure to have such a conversation. I feel like I've been needing this but didn't have any place to find it. (So thanks to Liza too!)

Say we stipulate that partisan fighting between countrymen used to be more the "within the club" kind you describe, and now it's become this polarized "no compromise" kind that you describe between warring tribes or factions determined to wipe out your whole way of life (extreme Rs feel that way about Ds too, except with God on their side and like all fundamentalists ready to die for their beliefs - so no compromise possible for THEM, I am certain.)

Also I hear them give the same speech about not equating the parties because THEY are so much more honorable and clean-cut, culture of life, prayer for guidance, resign rather than brazening it out, etc. Rs don't want to be equated with Dems any more than Dems can stand being lumped in with Rs.

So let's just stipulate that. Ds and Rs are not only "different" but as aliens to each other,estranged to the point that they might as well be middle eastern tribes fighting for the same land and neither side will ever compromise or yield or stop fighting.

And so - now what?