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Interesting. Guest blogging over at GlennReynolds.com, is law professor and author Cass Sunstein. He tackles the question of why Liberals and Conservatives hate each other so much. My first inclination is to shout "because they're wicked!", but that really does this discussion no good. He goes on to make some interesting observations about "groupthink" in his brief post on political polarization,

"Here's a clue: When like-minded people speak mostly to one another, they go to extremes. If members of a group think that President Bush is good, they're likely, after talking together, to think that President Bush is great. And if people in a discussion group think that the Iraq war has gone badly, they'll probably end up thinking that it has gone disastrously.

I'm rather tempted to quote the whole darn thing since it's so short. I did like this point however,

"Unfortunately, group polarization creates major problems. People can end up thinking of their fellow citizens as real enemies, rather than as simply having a different point of view. And even worse, both individuals and groups are likely to make big blunders if they don't contain dissenters. Corporations, investor clubs, and politicians do a lot better if they seek out views very different from their own."

My name is Ambra Nykol and I'm proud to be a Conservative dissenter. See, you need people like me. You really do!