Everyone Just Stop at Once

It seems in this political frenzy, everyone (perhaps more on the "left" side of the aisle) is spending time divining the motivations of their opponents be he Bush or Kerry.

Stop it right now!

I claim that any attempt to divine the internal dialog or motivations of an opponent with whom you:

1. Do not share a common worldview and
2. Despise (or worse)
   

will almost certainly fall wide of the mark.

However I will admit, if the end of your project/essay/post/column is not to actually truly understand your counterpart, but merely spread your ideological message. Well, go ahead, write away. But you should realize that the "implied" goal of finding an understanding into the thought processes of your 'adversary' is doomed from the start.