An Appeal for Civility
We have reached the weekend before Election Day (FINALLY), and I am ending my hiatus from talking politics. I feel I need to try once more to appeal to everyone to behave by what Lincoln once called "the better angels of our nature" on Election Day and after the results come in.
It's no secret that things have gotten even more hostile in the world of politics since I last blogged on the matter. People on both the far left and far right are becoming borderline rage-a-holics. Here in the 'Cuse, Local Talk Host got a caller who called him un-American and dropped an f-bomb on him. Later he had a wackjob threatening protests and efforts to take him off the air. This was all because Local Talk Host didn't speak kindly of Senator McCain and Governor Palin. A colleague of mine (an Obama supporter, by the way) thought it would be funny to dress up at John McCain for Halloween. He was walking down the street with his mask on, and a group of drunk college kids started yelling at him and threatening him. So apparently satire is just as bad as actually being in favor of the guy now.
As I write this, it's the Saturday before the election, Obama's still expected (at least by the media anyway) to win the election, and should he win, I'm not gonna scream and yell and cry foul and prepare for four years of hurling vitriol at the guy. But I know there are those who have spent the last eight years hurling vitriol at Republicans and they've fired themselves up so much that they are downright giddy now. I don't wish to trash Democrats by saying what I am about to say; as you know, most of my friends are Democrats and that is just one of the reasons why I wish to keep some measure of civility in the public discourse. I just want you to know that I am frightened.
The letters coming in for Obama the last few days are the reason why. There are those on the extreme Left who think they have this thing sewn up so they have no reason to sugarcoat their beliefs anymore. We are now getting letters to the editor proclaiming that "clinging to the past should be forbidden" or that the rich cannot be trusted to do the right thing with their money so it must be taken from them and given to the middle class, who rightfully deserves it. I almost want to rerun a column from the old days in response: it was titled, "You Don't Deserve ANYTHING." The fact is that this hatred that has been building up over the years has been vented in this election unlike in no other, and it's establishing some very disturbing precedents.
What have we learned from this election?
1) If you're an up-and-coming governor who gets your big shot at the VP gig and you excite your party's base and draw large crowds to your rallies (but you are opposing the Media's Chosen Candidate), you will be destroyed.
1a) If you're all of those things and a woman, it will be destruction by sexism.
2) If you're a regular guy (say a regular "Joe"), and you have the audacity to ask the Media's Chosen Candidate a question that will catch him off-balance and create the perfect soundbite for the opposition to use against him, you will be destroyed.
3) Democrats decide what is a negative ad. For example, no Democrat ad is negative, even if it's a local state assemblyman blaming President Bush for the continuing dysfunction of state government.
4) If a woman at one of your rallies calls your opponent an "Arab" and you seek to correct her, not only will you be booed by your own supporters, but you will elicit angry letters from offended Arab-Americans.
5) If you're over 70 years old and a major party candidate for president, it will be assumed by the opposition that you will die in the next four years and beyond characterizing you as developing senility and dementia, they will focus their true attacks on your VP choice (see #1). Incidentally, does this mean that if Obama does win, Biden will get tossed off the ticket in four years when Obama runs for re-election? After all, Biden will be pushing 70 himself in 2012.
And now, the last straw is fear. For eight years, Republicans have been accused of using the "politics of fear" to get what we want. But now, many Obama supporters are using that tactic to cinch victory. Not just the misguided attempts to tell us what the country will be like if Sarah Palin becomes president. We now have fear of race riots across the country if Obama loses. One left-wing blogger is quoted in the UK Telegraph article I have linked to as saying that if McCain is announced as a winner, it can only be a lie, and that Obama supporters should march on Washington and surround the White House until power is ceded. How would you like to be an undecided voter in a major swing state city like Philadelphia, Cincinnati, or St. Louis? Here's your choice: Do I vote for Obama or do I make myself indirectly responsible for my city burning?
And worst of all has been the outright insulting of a whole large bloc of the country. "Middle America" has become a slur. If you're from "Middle America", you are an IQ-Deficient Republican (I'm sure there are those who would consider that term redundant), you are white trash, you are a redneck. I would propose that "Middle America" did this to itself in some respects. We've spent the last several years embracing all things redneck, celebrating the Redneck Olympics, loving NASCAR, singing along with Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Woman", following the "White Trash Beautiful" trend. And now that you've done all that, you have become a lower form of life to elitists. And let me clarify something here for elitists who find it upsetting (naturally) that elites no longer engender respect. I have no problem with people who are "elite"; being a graduate student, I guess I would be considered an elite. However, to be elitist is to look down your nose at people who you don't consider to be as good as you, as smart as you, as well-off as you. I've certainly tried to see all men as created equal (like it says in our Declaration of Independence), but others have unfortunately gone for the Orwell "Animal Farm" worldview of "some are more equal than others." And this goes for both sides; this is not just a leftist problem. Conservatives are just as guilty of questioning the intelligence of those who disagree with them.
I close by noting that some of the best moments of this brutally long election campaign have been the less-than-serious ones, and I don't mean the flubs that get scrutinized by people on both sides who are eager to seize on their opponent's every misstatement. I mean moments like the Al Smith dinner, where McCain and Obama took turns good-naturedly roasting each other and other Washington luminaries. I mean moments like Gov. Palin's appearance on "Saturday Night Live", where she proved herself to be able to take a joke. Even in this most serious of elections, we see from time to time that even the people running don't take themselves too seriously. Perhaps we should do the same. Perhaps we need to realize that November 4 is not potentially the end of the world or the end of the country, but a new beginning. Regardless of who wins, we will have a new president, and it would be nice for a change to have the people of this country at least giving the guy a chance to make his mark before we ratchet up the bile again. Maybe it's too much to ask, but I'm asking for it anyway.
It's no secret that things have gotten even more hostile in the world of politics since I last blogged on the matter. People on both the far left and far right are becoming borderline rage-a-holics. Here in the 'Cuse, Local Talk Host got a caller who called him un-American and dropped an f-bomb on him. Later he had a wackjob threatening protests and efforts to take him off the air. This was all because Local Talk Host didn't speak kindly of Senator McCain and Governor Palin. A colleague of mine (an Obama supporter, by the way) thought it would be funny to dress up at John McCain for Halloween. He was walking down the street with his mask on, and a group of drunk college kids started yelling at him and threatening him. So apparently satire is just as bad as actually being in favor of the guy now.
As I write this, it's the Saturday before the election, Obama's still expected (at least by the media anyway) to win the election, and should he win, I'm not gonna scream and yell and cry foul and prepare for four years of hurling vitriol at the guy. But I know there are those who have spent the last eight years hurling vitriol at Republicans and they've fired themselves up so much that they are downright giddy now. I don't wish to trash Democrats by saying what I am about to say; as you know, most of my friends are Democrats and that is just one of the reasons why I wish to keep some measure of civility in the public discourse. I just want you to know that I am frightened.
The letters coming in for Obama the last few days are the reason why. There are those on the extreme Left who think they have this thing sewn up so they have no reason to sugarcoat their beliefs anymore. We are now getting letters to the editor proclaiming that "clinging to the past should be forbidden" or that the rich cannot be trusted to do the right thing with their money so it must be taken from them and given to the middle class, who rightfully deserves it. I almost want to rerun a column from the old days in response: it was titled, "You Don't Deserve ANYTHING." The fact is that this hatred that has been building up over the years has been vented in this election unlike in no other, and it's establishing some very disturbing precedents.
What have we learned from this election?
1) If you're an up-and-coming governor who gets your big shot at the VP gig and you excite your party's base and draw large crowds to your rallies (but you are opposing the Media's Chosen Candidate), you will be destroyed.
1a) If you're all of those things and a woman, it will be destruction by sexism.
2) If you're a regular guy (say a regular "Joe"), and you have the audacity to ask the Media's Chosen Candidate a question that will catch him off-balance and create the perfect soundbite for the opposition to use against him, you will be destroyed.
3) Democrats decide what is a negative ad. For example, no Democrat ad is negative, even if it's a local state assemblyman blaming President Bush for the continuing dysfunction of state government.
4) If a woman at one of your rallies calls your opponent an "Arab" and you seek to correct her, not only will you be booed by your own supporters, but you will elicit angry letters from offended Arab-Americans.
5) If you're over 70 years old and a major party candidate for president, it will be assumed by the opposition that you will die in the next four years and beyond characterizing you as developing senility and dementia, they will focus their true attacks on your VP choice (see #1). Incidentally, does this mean that if Obama does win, Biden will get tossed off the ticket in four years when Obama runs for re-election? After all, Biden will be pushing 70 himself in 2012.
And now, the last straw is fear. For eight years, Republicans have been accused of using the "politics of fear" to get what we want. But now, many Obama supporters are using that tactic to cinch victory. Not just the misguided attempts to tell us what the country will be like if Sarah Palin becomes president. We now have fear of race riots across the country if Obama loses. One left-wing blogger is quoted in the UK Telegraph article I have linked to as saying that if McCain is announced as a winner, it can only be a lie, and that Obama supporters should march on Washington and surround the White House until power is ceded. How would you like to be an undecided voter in a major swing state city like Philadelphia, Cincinnati, or St. Louis? Here's your choice: Do I vote for Obama or do I make myself indirectly responsible for my city burning?
And worst of all has been the outright insulting of a whole large bloc of the country. "Middle America" has become a slur. If you're from "Middle America", you are an IQ-Deficient Republican (I'm sure there are those who would consider that term redundant), you are white trash, you are a redneck. I would propose that "Middle America" did this to itself in some respects. We've spent the last several years embracing all things redneck, celebrating the Redneck Olympics, loving NASCAR, singing along with Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Woman", following the "White Trash Beautiful" trend. And now that you've done all that, you have become a lower form of life to elitists. And let me clarify something here for elitists who find it upsetting (naturally) that elites no longer engender respect. I have no problem with people who are "elite"; being a graduate student, I guess I would be considered an elite. However, to be elitist is to look down your nose at people who you don't consider to be as good as you, as smart as you, as well-off as you. I've certainly tried to see all men as created equal (like it says in our Declaration of Independence), but others have unfortunately gone for the Orwell "Animal Farm" worldview of "some are more equal than others." And this goes for both sides; this is not just a leftist problem. Conservatives are just as guilty of questioning the intelligence of those who disagree with them.
I close by noting that some of the best moments of this brutally long election campaign have been the less-than-serious ones, and I don't mean the flubs that get scrutinized by people on both sides who are eager to seize on their opponent's every misstatement. I mean moments like the Al Smith dinner, where McCain and Obama took turns good-naturedly roasting each other and other Washington luminaries. I mean moments like Gov. Palin's appearance on "Saturday Night Live", where she proved herself to be able to take a joke. Even in this most serious of elections, we see from time to time that even the people running don't take themselves too seriously. Perhaps we should do the same. Perhaps we need to realize that November 4 is not potentially the end of the world or the end of the country, but a new beginning. Regardless of who wins, we will have a new president, and it would be nice for a change to have the people of this country at least giving the guy a chance to make his mark before we ratchet up the bile again. Maybe it's too much to ask, but I'm asking for it anyway.
posted by Dave | 5:20 PM
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