Phobias in Politics

A liberal friend of mine posted a Facebook comment yesterday about the "homophobic" supporters of the Defense of Marriage Act.  It amuses me that much of the left tries to describe that conservative viewpoints are based on fear.   I work with a lot of people who support maintaining the current definition of law on marriage not because they fear gay marriage but because they have a deeply held set of religious beliefs, based on their interpretation of scripture, which compel them to take that position.   Many of those people are fine with changing laws to allow gays to have the property rights that people in traditional marriages have.  That seems to show a lot more flexibility than the "religophobics" who refuse to accept legitimate differences in beliefs. Or those who think all religious belief is somehow primitive.  I voted against California's Proposition 8 but I understand the position taken by many who supported it.

If there were anything close to comparability, I guess the logical conclusion would be that if one opposes the absurd economic positions of the left, that might be called "demophobic." The evidence of the last couple of years - where there have been huge increases in deficits and no real progress on improving the employment situation for many Americans is a pretty strong testament to a reason to have concern if not fear.  But in this case, unlike my friend's an hominem characterizations, the fear is based on demonstrated reality.   Wouldn't it be better for the left to try to understand the differences in thinking than coining terms to deride their opponents?