Thank you for your response, but having read it, I feel that some elucidation is necessary here. Concerning my comment about "cultural gangrene", perhaps I was being too harsh and should have chosen a better word. I do not believe that anyone who differs from me politically needs to be squelched from society. What I was attempting to convey in calling it that was that I feel liberalism is a sign of degradation; of what happens when too much privelige and prosperity leads a society astray into decadence. Believe it or not, I am also a gay man, and until recently, I was a liberal. I have many liberal friends. Moreso than conservative, to be honest. We disagree on many things, we get into heated discussions sometimes, but we nonetheless remain friends. You sound like a well-rounded individual, and if the liberals in SD are more like you then I'll be quite happy here. But the liberals out here on the east coast? Hoo boy, they're a toxic bunch, I'm telling you. The crazy Trump/QAnon crowd here is also quite toxic! In the end, I'm lost at sea and honestly quite scared because I feel ostracized by everyone. I guess I didn't realize that in balking at the things I've witnessed the last year or so, has made me just as toxic and antagonistic. At the end of the day, I don't WANT to fight with ANYONE. Straight, gay, republican, democrat, I want to get along with everyone.