This is what bugs me the most. Conservatives seem to see politics as a football game, where you root for your team. They view politics as a zero-sum game, with "winners" and "losers." But that is not how operating a government in a democracy works. That requires compromise and collaboration. The sausage needs to get made.

I've seen so many conservatives online after the election gloating about "owning the libs." They don't realize that they just shot themselves in the foot in some misguided effort to make an ideological point.

The "libs" are not the enemy. I also hate it when they use fake terms like "liberals" or "the left" when that is not the name of any political or demographic group. Adults call things and groups by their actual names. Instead Republicans are making up things and groups of people and spending their time and energy fighting these straw men.

As we all are seeing, that kind of stochastic terrorism can have real-world consequences for a lot of our citizens, and for our country. Big talk online can translate into real-world harassment, threats, assaults, school shootings, -- or even coup attempts.

No democratic government can remain viable when people have descended so far down into the "us vs. them" tar pits that they can no longer have a civil conversation -- or even agree on the same reality and same facts. And before conservatives @ us and ask why we're cutting them off, it's because many of us have been trying to have a civil conversation for the past ten years and we've learned that you can't have a civil conversation with people who are uncivil. Or who are so delusional that there is no possibility of even having a meaningful discussion.

We're tired of being framed as your "enemy." We're tired of being your scapegoats. We're tired of trying to protect idiots from themselves. We're going to protect ourselves and our allies and let the rest of you FAFO.