Flaming Liberal and Rabid Republicans

So here's the situation. I am a Liberal Idahoan (I know, it seems counterintuitive), and I'm currently attending Brigham Young University as a Master's student. From one Red state to the next...I know. Shoot me. It's not that bad really. I don't mind being in the minority, in fact, I can now play (and sing along to) Green Day's Minority with some appreciation for the reality of it. Down with the "moral" majority! But I digress.

As an under grad at BYU (you'd think they'd have learned and not let me back in...silly people!) I took a class that led to a discussion on Noam Chomsky and his linguistic beliefs. The TA asked us "What do you know about Chomsky?" At any other university the first response probably would have sounded something like, "he thought he knew what he was talking about, but new research shows that he was off the mark." Not at BYU. The first thing anyone said was "he's a flaming liberal" it was all down hill from there. Now, Chomsky's theories have all but been disproven, but what does his political affiliation have to do with anything? Nothing. Made me think....can other things be flaming? Or just liberals? Without be too un-politically correct, there are a few other things that can be. Most of them are more commonly associated with "left-wing" politics, but can conservatives be flaming conservatives?

For the rest of the year, my classmates and I set out to call everything we could "flaming." After recent events in my life, I've decided that Democrats are indeed "flaming liberals" and our dear friends on the right are simply "rabid Republicans." I won't go into the details of my past few run-ins with such types, because they're really great people and I love them anyway. Suffice it to say, that one against 3 (or more) is never a fun place to be....well, okay...maybe I enjoyed it. I can't help it. When I find people of the Rabid Republican type that actually know what they're talking about, this Flaming Liberal likes to argue. It doesn't happen often around here. Most people think they're Republican simply because that's what their parents are and what their grandparents were. No other reason. These last few encounters have been with well educated and informed RRs and I don't mind the discussions they brought up. I doubt we'll ever see eye to eye, but we can be friends, right?