It's always fascinating to watch the hoops liberals are willing to jump through in order to paint themselves as victims. I didn't get that job. Must be racism! I'm not as far ahead in my career as I'd like. Must be sexism! I'm poor. It must be because the rich people are getting all the breaks at my expense!

It's always something.

Now, over at the Daily Kos, a diarist named RoddieH is complaining that he can no longer be friends with conservatives, basically just because he can't stand the fact that they don't agree with him.

Now, that's not my personal philosophy. I have a few liberal friends and acquaintances, but I do understand people who just get so wrapped up in politics that they can't be friends with people on the opposite side of the fence.

Again, personally, I do think friendships should be bigger than politics and that even people who disagree on every political issue still have an opportunity to get along if they avoid politics entirely or at least agree to have respectful discussions about the issues, but to each his own.

That being said, the thing that really caught my eye was that this Kossack admits that he essentially drove his friends away and then he blamed Karl Rove for it! It's just too hilarious!

I have personally experienced the result of the polarization of national political bickering with friendships I have held for many decades. And it's truly unfortunate.

Only months after my good friend from my Navy days from the 1980s kept ignoring my phone calls and invitations to go golfing did it dawn on me why I am no longer considered his friend. The realization came when I had a recent ferocious political argument with a second friend I have known from childhood (this second friend shares the viewpoints of my first friend mentioned above). I have been practicing "reverse scorched earth" with those whose political leanings are decidedly conservative. And I don't know why I refuse to seek middle ground. But I'm not in the mood to cool it. I want blood. Thank you, Karl Rove.

...My friend from childhood is now a self-made business man who wholeheartedly supports this horrible conflict in Iraq, although when I ask whether he is prepared to send his 20 year old son overseas to fight for his country he evades the issue by replying "that is his own decision." Another armchair neocon Chickenhawk tough guy. And I say that to my friend's face.

...My other friend, the Navy veteran, comes from a Navy family. More frequently than not, military families lean conservative because, they figure, the conservatives like pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into the military industrial complex without any sense of accountability for how those dollars are spent. Senior military officials like Republicans because when those senior military officials leave the service they find work on the civilian side doing stuff not so different from what they did while in uniform. It's largely a matter of a steady paycheck, but military people will couch their arguments in "patriotism." It's bullsh*t.

...I find myself completely intolerant of my friends who share the viewpoints of the Republican Party, and barely tolerant of siblings who do the same.

...And because my friends cannot or will not see what I see, I cannot abide them any longer as friends.

...PS F*ck you Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and the rest of you neocon *ssholes. I lay this at your feet."

Oh yeah, it's Karl Rove's fault that this guy is calling one of his "friends" a "chickenhawk" (like Barack Obama, cough cough) and calling his other friend's patriotism "bullsh*t."

That's Karl Rove and Dick Cheney's doing? No, no, that's called p-r-o-j-e-c-t-i-o-n, my friend.

Projection is a defense mechanism that involves taking our own unacceptable qualities or feelings and ascribing them to other people. For example, if you have a strong dislike for someone, you might instead believe that he or she does not like you. Projection functions to allow the expression of the desire or impulse, but in a way that the ego cannot recognize, therefore reducing anxiety.

Republicans didn't ruin his friendships. He's just a jackass.