Buffalo wrote:BC & Droopy, your clothes are dry.

You know, thinking about it for a while, and remembering back over the time that I've been politically conscious (since 1972) in any salient sense, and since I was conscious of a debate going on in the world between people on the "Right" and people on the "Left," I've been reminded by Bluffalo here that, given that he, Chap, Eric, Schreech, Kiskkumen, Scratch, Tarski, and so many more, are representative of the mainstream American Left, and the ideological base of the Democratic party, it would appear that conservatives, from an intellectual/philosophical perspective, are facing little more than a cake walk.
Conservatives/libertarians won all the intellectual arguments generations ago, but, for some reason, ceded much of the culture and its fundamental institutions to the counter-culture. As to why this ultimately occurred, there are a number of closely allied theories, but it remains that, regardless of what issue is of concern, the Left ceded both the intellectual and moral high ground long, long ago, along a number of philosophical, cultural, and social fronts.
Calling someone a Klansman and racist who dissents from policies like Affirmative Action, and from its supporting ideologies, is not only the refuge of an intellectual hack who really shouldn't even be in the discussion at all, but represents the continuing abandonment of the moral high ground leftists are so highly sensitive in arrogating to themselves even as most of what they actually believe requires a harshly intolerant value relativist philosophy that, precisely, tolerates no claims of settled, foundational right and wrong and of a clearly delineated concept of morality and immorality.
Unless, of course, they arrogate to themselves the right and Platonic insight necessary to define these things upon their own authority for others.
Petulant, condescending airs of intellectual and moral superiority, name calling, character assassination, and, when finally in power, unaccountable coercive force. These are all the Left has ever had, and all it ever will have, until the day comes that the tares are gathered and burned as stubble.
How long, Lord?