Yes, I followed those comments for months.  The more common, reasonable comments were basically ignored or purposefully misconstrued.  The occasional over-the-top alarmist post, however, was pounced upon and received the fanning flames of dozens of angry, 'gloves-off' Red-staters.

Basically it was a self-fulfilling prophecy that the Ron Paul discussions would denigrate into chaos.

My personal opinion is that the hard-core, blinders-on, change-what-why? Red-staters caused caused said 'chaos', not the Paul supporters.  They were *so* dismissive of any Ron Paul support – reasonable or not – that it created an atmosphere of fear, loathing, and intolerance.  And when the occasional 'moonbat' stepped up to the plate, they tended to make such a hoopla of anything remotely off-beat that it distorted reality.  Even in those instances, I think they *could* have had a reasonable discussion with the person instead of labeling them a 'moonbat' and shoving them out of the party.