Ted Cruz is crazy. There is no "agree to disagree with them" and that is the problem. They will go on and on and on. At parties they will corner people and start screaming at them. Yes, I have had this happen at one of my parties.

jbindc: "You can find common ground about many things -  sports, about hobbies, about the weather, and yes, even in politics if people would act like grownups and actually listen to one another. It's to the point that, just as the minority Tea Party wing will denounce anything said by a Democrat or liberal, the Dems and liberals are just as guilty."

At this point, if we keep buying into your Beltway media-infused false equivalencies in the face of all evidence to the contrary, this is how we're all going to end up.

Sorry to disappoint you, but we're no longer able to find common political ground with the far-right by comparing grocery lists with our neighbors in the local supermarket checkout line, or inquiring with them about where to find the best auto repair shop in your area, and hey, how about those L.A. Kings, eh, nudge, nudge, wink, wink? Not that we were ever going to in the first place. It's way too late for that, I'm afraid.

The GOP is in the weeds, held in a death grip by the far-right, who've has made it crystal clear that they're not interested in political compromise, and have issued ultimatums to that effect to the moderate members of their own party. It's either their way, or the highway.

America's far-right is literally life as an imitation of art, the mindless and unhinged anger of Network's Howard Beale made flesh and blood. You can't reason with them, because sometimes they're right and you're wrong, while other times you're wrong and they're right.

Show me just one moderate Republican in Washington who's actually, really stood up to the crackpots in their own party in any meaningful way recently, and then lived to talk about it. I don't mean merely in a rhetorical sense, a la Speaker John Boehner's silly "Are you kidding me?" presser after the House GOP-provoked government shutdown. That was nothing more than political vaudeville, performed for the TV cameras. From a policy standpoint, it was totally meaningless.

I mean, show me a Republican in Washington who's actually running counter to their ideologically whacked-out party members in public or on the House or Senate floor, the way Sen. Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME) did back in 1950, when she first denounced her vile GOP colleague Joe McCarthy in her famous "Declaration of Conscience" speech, and then followed those words up with deeds by crossing the aisle repeatedly to join Democrats in opposition to her own party's race down the right-wing rabbit hole.

Why is this particular Congress the most rabidly partisan, yet also the most useless and singularly unaccomplished, in well over a century? Because whatever few moderate Republicans are left have been bludgeoned by the far-right to within an inch of their political lives. They've been cowed so completely into submission by rabid Teabots that they're now almost completely tamed and submissive, afraid to break ranks with the whackjobs and join their more sane Democratic colleagues to get things done for the good of the country.

I mean, Jesus H. Christ, jb, they could've even collectively grow a pair to help pass meaningful firearms background check legislation in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy, with the image of 20 slaughtered first-graders as an incentive! That bill died in the Senate not by majority vote, but because of a phuquing GOP filibuster orchestrated by the far-right NRA!

Unlike you, apparently, I've actually worked in various legislative bodies, including on Capitol Hill. And from a couple decades of experience interacting with politicians of all stripes, I can tell you that the world you're describing started dying off politically during the 1980s.

Within the GOP, that body really started rotting when Richard Nixon ran for president and was elected in 1968. It accelerated when Ronald Reagan then attempted to unseat Nixon's unfortunate successor, the eminently decent Gerald Ford, as the 1976 Republican presidential nominee.

And for that, you can thank the rancid likes of the late H.R. Haldeman, Lee Atwater and their acolytes, who began poisoning the atmosphere in which bipartisan dialogue must take place with their increasingly toxic rhetoric and disreputable political tactics. And for what, exactly -- simply to win a phuquing election?

Sad to say, your friends in your hometown have since turned electioneering into a personally lucrative quasi-industry that now operates 24/7/365, and it's effectively replaced governance as the standing order of the day in Washington.

And, equally sad to say, Republican voters aren't helping matters any, because they're not nominating that nice woman who's politely engaged you in banal conversation, while the two of you wait in line for tickets to the 3:00 p.m. Saturday matinee at the local octoplex.

No, they're choosing total ignoramics like George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, Tom Corbett, Michele Bachmann and Louie Gohmert -- and dare I say it? Yes, I dare, Ronald Reagan -- as their candidates and elected officials, people who endeavor to rule, yet really know next to nothing about the art of effective governance, and don't care to learn it as part of any on-the-job training.

Instead, all-American he-men and she-women that they are, their decision making rests upon their "gut instincts," which I think has become a right-wing political euphemism for a bowel movement. And hey, it's also totally rad and cool to be the king and queen and say whatever's on your mind to anyone without apology or consequence, and to surround yourself with a whole passel of ingratiating suck-ups who await only your beck and call to serve your every whim, all in exchange for a taxpayer-funded paycheck.

And Republican voters also fall repeatedly for smooth-talking cynics like Dick Cheney, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Darryl Issa, Rick Scott and Scott Walker -- and until just the other day, Eric Cantor -- who, ugly and shocking truth be known to you, are really out only for themselves.

Now, these are the Republicans I fear, because much like their Democratic soul brothers Terry McAuliffe, Max Baucus and Andrew Cuomo, they're nothing but unabashed corporatists at heart, who've correctly pegged their base of voters as nothing more than rubes and hicks to be first riled up, then hitched to their wagons to take their masters to wherever it is they wish to go. And these are the guys who are primarily responsible for the mess this country's become politically.

These cynics see themselves first and foremost as "movers and shakers." They know all the right buzzwords that constitute red meat for their respective audiences, who for the most part are frustrated and angry because not only are they NOT getting ahead and making it, they're instead seeing themselves slide a$$-first right out of the American Dream and back down toward the federal poverty line.

Accordingly, these audiences have developed an increasingly bloodthirsty appetite for a pound of political flesh, as retribution for their pain and suffering. And good cynics that these politicos are, they always have a multitude of sacrificial lambs to offer them, and for any occasion.

Muslims, who'll impose Sharia law on us all if we don't stop 'em. Latinos, both illegal and legal, who are pouring across the border to suck our tax dollars dry and re-annex California to Mexico. Black women on welfare, driving Cadillacs and having babies instead of getting a job. Our own spoiled rotten kids, who don't know what it's like to work hard, and who don't respect their elders. Gay men and lesbians, who are lying in wait to seduce our own spoiled rotten kids into a sinful and hedonistic lifestyle. And of course, liberal Democrats, who support all of these ingrates and degenerates as a means of ultimately imposing godless socialism upon us all.

Not that electing any more cynics to office is going to help people any, but that's really not the point here. Because when they've finally run their course, as political cynics inevitably do, there's always a cushy executive appointment to a position that's often converted from civil service to patronage, or a well-lubed job as a lobbyist on K Street in D.C. -- or L Street in Sacramento, Bishop Street in Honolulu, etc., etc. -- awaiting them.

This is the political America in which I presently live and work, jb. It's not Levittown or Suburbank, it's not the Mall of America or the Galleria, it's not a 4th of July fireworks show and concert at the Rose Bowl or on the National Mall, it's not the 7th inning stretch at Wrigley Field or Yankee Stadium, and it's most certainly not found on a sound stage set from "The West Wing," "Scandal" or "House of Cards."

Rather, Washington has become a professional snipe hunt, where everyone who knows someone can make a very nice living by chasing each other's tails and occasionally lifting them to kiss what's underneath. It's the unfortunate result of 40-plus years of self-serving cynicism and steadily corrosive public rhetoric, by which those aforementioned "movers and shakers" have set people against one another to fight for scraps under the table, while they themselves continue to gorge, burp and fart.

Political polarization has enabled a massive transfer of wealth and assets up the food chain to those who can hardly eat and live any better than they already do, and who've in turn showed their appreciation for their good fortune by abandoning those unfortunate souls who truly need help, because hey, if you're poor it's your own damned fault.

It's led to significant and very hurtful cuts to public education at all levels, which has gradually dumbed down the electorate that in turn re-elects the same cynics who are causing so much of the damage. It has further saddled the average young college graduate with tens of thousands of dollars in debt from student loans, before he or she even enters the workforce.

Small wonder we're seeing a near-exponential growth in the number of multi-generational households, when our kids work full-time and still can't afford even the most basic of mortgages for a starter home.

I don't claim to have all the answers, or even any answers at this point. What I can tell you is that for the most part, I'm through talking to the other side (and a number of people on my own side, as well), because I've reached out repeatedly and dialogued until I'm phuquing blue in the face.

The next time I talk to Republicans, hopefully it'll be to discuss the terms of their surrender. Which I'm afraid probably isn't going to happen any time soon, as long as feckless middle-of-the-roaders like yourself keep deluding each other that the reasonable GOP of the Eisenhower years somehow still exists today, somewhere. And if it doesn't, well, both sides are to blame for the present political impass.

How nice it must be for you folks in D.C. -- which is now the richest metropolitan area per capita in the entire country, thanks to all the self-aggrandizement and self-dealing that's taken place over the years -- to kumbaya with one another and buy into each other's own faerie tales.

No doubt, it's because the self-manufactured malarkey you're peddling is so much easier for you to swallow, than is the present hardcore political reality you've created that's daily slapping the rest of us rubes and hicks square across the face, out here in the hinterlands and sticks.

No, I don't wear a blue D on my forehead and if I did somebody would probably use it as a reason to shoot me here in Ga.

I talk most of my politics here so as not to let it possibly ruin everyday in the flesh encounters...I think I'm with jb on this one, there is common ground to be found with any and all outside of the topics of politics and religion.  Life's too short to take politics too seriously...it's not what is important in life, not by a long shot.