You can listen to their eerie silence here . Tolerance, in its current political usage, is threatening to become so broad that soon there will be nothing left to be intolerant of. Both parties' zeal to embrace their own intramural dissenters is so complete that it seems no one's political support will ever be rejected. Come on in, the big-tent philosophy says, there's room for everyone. But even there we're refusing to tolerate the intolerant.
Tolerance still comes out ahead.
The phenomenon is as much cultural as political. In our anything-goes culture, sex and violence in movies and song lyrics is more routine than ever. Ethnic traditions, once viewed as badges of un-Americanism, are now prized. In many quarters, gay parents rearing kids don't raise an eyebrow. Live and let live.