Think of this as Volume 12, Number 35 of A-Clue.com, the online newsletter I've written since 1997. Enjoy.
It's the most profound question of our time.
Is there a way to enforce civility, to demand that adults in a democracy behave as adults or else. Or else what?
The last month has revealed that Republicans, from the top of their leadership to the bottom of their grassroots, are simply not interested in civil discourse. They have thrown in with the Haties as Democrats never threw in with the hippies of 40 years ago.
Those who pretend to civility, like Sen. John McCain, use that pose as a weapon, demanding it of Democrats while doing nothing to assure it among his own people. Worse are those like Sen. Charles Grassley quietly egging on the hate while pretending to be negotiating. He needs to pay a price for that.
The hatred unleashed here has been profound. Our President is routinely called names like Obongo, or compared to Hitler with no evidence other than his stated desire for health care reform and his necessary work (begun under Bush) to restart the economy by flooding it with cash.
The President is routinely dehumanized, with the excuse given that Democrats attacked President Bush and painted him too as Hitler. The word for that is projection. It's the attitude of a toddler. And we're talking about men and women in their 50s, 60s and 70s here, even 80-somethings.
It's also beside the point, because it's apparent the same hatred would now be on display, the same attempt to dehumanize, had Hillary Clinton or even John Edwards been elected last year. The same attacks are used against anyone in the media who calls people on this game, whether that's Keith Olbermann on MSNBC or your average blogger-on-the-street.I have been verbally assaulted many times, and likely will be for writing these words, by children pretending to be adults.
Regular readers here know where this comes from. The Nixon Thesis of Conflict was all about dehumanizing other Americans as some unAmerican "other," and this attitude reached its apotheosis with the Bush Administration. A generation has been raised to believe that bullying works, that the Argument Clinic is a parliamentary procedure, that their leaders are always right and the other side always has dark motives.
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