[i]"Rationalizations are the ad hoc smoke that billows up from emotional fires. You dont' treat rationalizations as if they were reasoned, principled arguments any more than you put out a fire by standing around and waving at the smoke. You put out a fire by putting out the fire. But if that is not enough...and the fires keep coming back...then its time to put out the arsonist." ----Prof. Drew Westren. "The Political Brain". [/i] You are making the same mistake that most people from the Center to the Left make when trying to have a political debate with those of a more Conservative (read Authoritarian) bent. You are arguing facts..and reason....to a group of people who see the world through emotion and group identity. The authoritarian (conservative) follower sees the world in all-or-nothing....us vs them terms. They struggle to see themselves....and any group of which they are a part in any sort of nuanced or balance way. They also struggle to see the world from any other point of view other than their own, and that of those most like themselves. So they can't look the spectrum of the poltiical Right....and say, "Yeah, some of thse people share some of my beliefs...but some of the things they think are nuts...and some of the things theydo are bad." No they have to unconditionally defend the tribe...and ALL it thinks and does. So what they commonly do is assign the "bad trait" to THEM....and then attack THEM for having it. Blind to the hypocrisy of it all. Because its being done to meet an emotional need. ..and that's how you wind up with the absurd situation of people dedicating themselves to FIGHTING fascists, being (stupidly) accused of BEING fascists.