Ah, well, derailed for derailed... At this moment of the week, it's no longer a big issue, is it?
Ah, but isn't that prejudice? Believe me, as a life long conservative republican, we are not nazi's.
I sincerely feel for you.
I'm not an American, just genuinely interested in American politics, and my political opinions lean more to the liberal side of your country's political spectrum (I'd even call myself a progressist), but at least I can disagree in a civil way with real conservatives. I like to think the debates between conservative and progressist tendancies is something a democratic country needs to go forward without going off-rails. Ideally, that is.
I can't speak for American liberals, only for myself, but my impression from across the pond is that it's not really conservatives most liberals have problems with (wether they aknowledge it or not), it's the reactionary fundy nutjobs who seem to have hijacked the Republican Party for quite a while. Actually, from what I read here and there, many conservatives have problems with them, too. And many conservatives voted for Barack Obama, despite their sympathy for John McCain as a person, for being appalled by several aspects of his (actually, his team's) campaigning strategy, especially the pick of Sarah Palin, a move that lost him more moderate conservative votes than it won him fundy ones.
And that's why I feel for you. This must be hard for a reasonable citizen to see their reference party go weird. I really hope the conservatives will manage to take back the GOP from the hands of the fundies (US' political system seems too stuck in bipartidism for creating a new party to be a viable option), because it would be sad, and dangerous for Democracy, if conservatives couldn't be correctly represented in the institutions.
On quite another matter, namely Killbot, I'd suggest her to have a look at the Something Positive arc starting
there and finishing
there, but either she's a troll and it's pointless, either she really means what she said and it's hopeless.
I may not be as 'modern' as i though. I suport gay rights in theory, but the image of two (admitadly entirely fictional) dudes kissing each other still made me feel a little ill. I wish it were easier to reconcile my political and personal beliefs.
It's no biggie to feel a bit weirded out by it, our outlooks are mostly built around convenient notions of normality that can come in the way of our attempts at being open-minded.
Rule number One of the Quest for Open-Mindedness: never assume you're open-minded, always consider yourself an open mind in training. This makes you recursively open-minded, as you are open-minded enough to acknowledge the shortcomings of your open-mindedness without blaming yourself needlessly, and are able to build from that.
And finally, my take as a straight male of Henry and Maurice kissing: cute and heartwarming. Acts of tenderness are to be cherished even if they take forms you can't completely connect to.