This is exactly what I'm talking about, people feel alienated when we get into broad political statements and finger pointing. Yes, we could easily point the finger at Democrats because Bill Nelson is a Democrat and other democrats will side with him because they belong to the same party. We all know that this is a Florida issue and Florida's politicians may have an alterior motive (trying to get more federal funding by blowing the Everglades python issue out of proportion). It could just as easily be a republican in power right now doing the same thing. Let's not forget about the anti-herping legislation that was passed in Texas a couple years back that was pushed through by Republicans, while it was a Democrat that tried to get reptiles taken off the bill: 

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid:507501

Both political parties are constantly letting us down because they act for their own interests, so for the sake of argument and in the name of our own interests, let's think of this as an independent forum. 

We all have ONE thing in common here, we like our boas. Our country is divided along party lines based on their own beliefs and interests, and there is a lifetime of history that goes into shaping an individuals beliefs. Nobody should expect to be able to change another persons core values and beliefs with a forum post. We should understand it doesn't work that way. What we CAN do is try to keep a sense of community going here by not alienating anyone based on their outside beliefs. If you think about it everyone has their own reason for identifying with a particular political party. Most often a person agrees with democratic policies on some issues and republicans on others. Sometimes there is one issue (religion, abortion, guns, environment etc.) that pushes a person to choose one side over the other. If we were to lay all these issues out on the table and argue about them here on Kingsnake.com we will end up with very few people who agree on everything. Basically we will find out that we are individuals, and we will feel alot more like individuals than a group at that point and it will be hard to move forward as a group. So how about we just skip all that and acknowledge that we are individuals who have a common interest and call that good enough. For the sake of getting anything done right now let's just pretend that the only thing that matters is that we agree on this one issue. Our boas and pythons are independent minded and we should join them, we could call ourselves "The legless party", "Republiconstrictors" or "Boacrats", or perhaps something even more ridiculous sounding. We'll be much more effective if we can set aside our differences and direct our collective energy at the people trying to take away our snakes. 
United we stand, divided we fall.

Peace,

Uriah 

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