EDITORIAL - I do not know about you, but I am growing increasing intolerant over the ?tolerance? war. What exactly is tolerance, anyway? Is it blindingly agreeing with absolutely any liberal position? It seems so. Interestingly, if a conservative holds a right-of-center opinion on virtually any issue, that conservative is then deemed intolerant. But, if that conservative happens to hold a more liberal position on an issue, he or she immediately enters the fun and illuminating world of tolerance, automatically.

Let?s go over a few issues and define each as tolerant or intolerant:

• If you oppose welfare, you are intolerant. If you support welfare, you are tolerant.


• If you oppose progressive taxation, you are intolerant. If you support progressive taxation, you are tolerant.


• If you support securing our borders, you are intolerant. If you oppose securing our borders, you are tolerant.


• If you support George W. Bush, you are intolerant. If you support John F. Kerry or virtually any democrat, you are tolerant.


• If you are liberal, you are tolerant. If you are conservative, you are intolerant.


• If you are a church-going, God fearing American, you are intolerant.


• If you march the streets of Washington D.C., armed with ?Bush is a war criminal? posters, you are tolerant.


• If your name is Michael Moore and you produce a left-wing ?documentary? meant only to destroy another person, you are tolerant.


• If you own a waning 24-hour news station and compare George W. Bush to Adolph Hitler, you are tolerant.


• If you believe the media is objective, fair, generally right-of-center and friends with America, you are tolerant.


• If you believe harmful narcotics serve a legitimate purpose to help Americans relax and unwind from a stressful day, you are tolerant.


• If you are a professor and believe Al Qaeda was justified in their slaughtering of over 3,000 Americans in the World Trade Center towers, you are tolerant.

Tolerance is bliss, isn?t it? If a person truly is ?tolerant?, then that person is open to opposing views. Is it tolerant, then, to call conservatives ?intolerant?? The answer appears to depend on the accuser?s political affiliation. Liberals cannot possibly be intolerant, right? No way, no how? To ?tolerant? liberals, that is correct.

Pardon me from taking an objective look at this issue ? I?ll be brief. It is not intolerant to merely hold an opinion. If it were, no one on the face of the earth could hold claim to being such a thing. No political party is any more tolerant than the other. Both parties hold opinions. Both parties act on those opinions as they see it. Both parties have every right to hold those opinions and change opinions whenever they like.

It is no more ?tolerant? to support welfare than it is ?tolerant? to go to church. Both positions stem from deeply held beliefs. Similarly, it is no more intolerant to support tax cuts than it is intolerant to support tax increases. Tolerance should not be defined by the positions that we hold. Rather, it should be defined by how open we are to opposing beliefs. A rejection of opposing beliefs is not intolerant, but the notion that one political party is tolerant, while the other political party is not, seemed to be closer to true, genuine intolerance than anything else.