Dan: You make an excellent point, and one I was thinking of bringing up myself. That being the difference between liberals and leftists. “Liberal” is one of the best words going, especially when combined with “democracy”.

As of late, though, it’s bandied about as an epithet or pejorative.

I’m very conservative, but I hold no loyalty to the idiots and zealots that have seized my party and turned it into a self-parody. For me to consider someone like Sarah Palin a “conservative” makes a mockery of true conservatism and some of the best political thought in the last 60 years.

While I disagree ideologically with folks like Dan and Gandalf, I respect their intelligence and reasoning and treat them accordingly. Dialogue, discourse and disagreement are what makes this country great (or at least they used to) and the give-and-take between the poles is what keeps the system healthy.

Dan: As far as Cuba goes, it’s a repressive dictatorship run by a murderous Stalinist thug who is long past his day. Cuba has imprisoned thousands whose only crime was trying to speak freely against the depredations of the Castro regime. Yes, we’ve supported worse in our time, but it doesn’t change what Fidel and his ilk represent. Cuba Libres and ice cream notwithstanding, he makes for a bad example.