THE ENEMIES LIST CHANGES; THE FIGHTING CONTINUES

In the last 24 hours, as you know from an earlier post, I've ventured into the world of the Clinton absolutists -- people who claim to be Democrats but whose comments about Barack Obama and anyone who supports him rely to a great extent on tropes I would expect from Free Republic and Lucianne.com (e.g., Obama's a corrupt crypto-Black Panther; Edwards is a wussy loser who lives in a big house and gets fancy haircuts).

I read this and then see that John McCain wants to give the back of his hand to congressional Republicans, whom he sees as millstones (even though he's one of them), while there's still quite a bit of evidence that many Republicans still aren't thrilled with McCain yet, either.

The Democrats nominated the guy who wants an end to partisan squabbling. The Republicans nominated the guy who wants to be known as a maverick. And practically everyone hates Bush now. We should be inching toward that moment when we all sing "Kumbaya" around the campfire, right? Instead, the amount of fighting hasn't decreased -- it's just that it's increasingly intramural.

Was that inevitable? I'm starting to think it was. I feel as if we're so used to fighting that we can't not fight, that we can't possibly have anyone as a winner without the sense among those who backed the wrong horse that the winner is the embodiment of evil in the universe, just because we're so accustomed to girding our lines against that kind of absolute evil.

I don't know where I'm going with this, but I think we're very resistant right now to the notion that we can be healed by anyone who wasn't our choice in the first place. Maybe that would change with an improved economy or an end to the war, but for now we seem to be in a political war of each against all.