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Campaign Crawlers
What’s Civility Got To Do With It?
In today’s election to replace Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, civility will reign only if the Democrat wins — according to the usual suspects.
Today, voters in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District choose a new Representative to succeed Gabby Giffords, who stepped down in January to take further time to recover from the injuries sustained in the shooting that nearly took her life a year earlier. Former Giffords’ aide Ron Barber is favored to win the vote over Republican Jesse Kelly, who mounted a tough challenge against Gifford during the 2010 mid-term elections. Barber was among those wounded in the attack, which claimed the lives of six people.
I was struck by the following headline from CNN concerning this special election:
Is civil discourse possible in race to replace Giffords?
The end of the lead paragraph states that today’s election is being viewed as “taking the temperature of the nation’s political discourse.”
Well, let me answer a question with a question. What’s civility got to do with it?
In the wake of the Tucson shooting, the mainstream media fell all over themselves casting the Tea Party and Sarah Palin’s electoral map with gun sights as public enemy number one. This despite the fact that the shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, had no involvement with the Tea Party much less was a supporter of Palin or any other Republican. But since when does the mainstream media let the facts get in the way of a narrative?
Then there was President Obama’s address at the University of Arizona, Tucson. “It’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds,” said the President. Of course, this was before his re-election PAC accepted a $1 million from Bill Maher. Those words of wisdom came with a waiver.
But those words of wisdom were also utterly meaningless. Gabby Giffords wasn’t shot because of the level of political discourse in the United States. She was shot because of the deranged thoughts of a madman who, had he resided in a neighboring district, might very well have set his sights on a different elected official. If Loughner had shot a Republican Congressman would the President have even bothered? Would the mainstream media have asked about civility?
They certainly didn’t ask about civility when it came to the recall referendum in Wisconsin. If the mainstream media truly wants to take the temperature of political discourse in the United States, it ought to have set it sights 1,800 miles east of Tucson. Where were the calls for civility from the mainstream media when Jesse Jackson compared Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to the late segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace? Where were the calls for civility from the mainstream media when one Wisconsin union leader likened Walker’s budgetary reforms to the attack of September 11, 2001? Where were the calls for civility from the mainstream media when an angry recall activist slapped Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett across the face after he lost to Walker? And where were the calls for civility from the mainstream media when liberal activists took to Twitter to call for Walker’s assassination following his victory?
As it stands, if Barber wins as expected then the mainstream media will proclaim this election a triumph for civility and how it represents everything that is good about America. Speaking of good, they will also try to spin Barber’s victory into good news for President Obama in terms of public acceptance of his policies and how he might have a chance to carry Arizona in November. However, if Kelly should upset Barber then we will be treated to stories on the divisiveness of his campaign and how his victory has sullied civility and set it back half a century. Of course, the only thing that would have been sullied is the mainstream media’s hopes for a Democrat victory in Arizona’s 8th.
About the Author
Aaron Goldstein writes from Boston, Massachusetts.
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spike59| 6.12.12 @ 6:52AM
Liberal definitions:
'civility'....taking whatever liberals dish out in silence
'hate speech'...any utterance not in 100% agreement with ProgLibSpeech codes
'the conversation'...a lecture from a liberal, or two liberals engaged in mutual verbal masturbation
'diversity'...showing differences in appearance, gender, and sexual orientation...but not in viewpoint
'tolerance'...the good-hearted forbearance of all viewpoints that agree 100% with whatever Kos/PuffHo/Soros dictate
Appleby| 6.12.12 @ 7:02AM
Civil Discourse is beginning to make a return to the everyday location at ground level, and it's being led by ladies and gentlemen who are tired of every second word being f*** or s**t. There was a burst of approving "tweets" in one of our local commuter paper, praising a woman of mature years who spoke firmly to a couple of Hip and With It Girls in their twenties about their loud and profanity-laced language polluting the train car filled with tired people returning home who just wanted peace and quiet. I myself asked a woman on a crowded subway car if she could say two words without one of them being f**k -- she answered in somewhat meek embarrassment that she had a backache and somebody kept elbowing her and it hurt. I asked her if she'd thought of saying "Ouch!"
People spew profanity and scream threats largely because nobody asks them not to. Do you remember when your mother's quiet, "Everybody's looking at you," was enough to make you shut your trap? Let's bring those days back, shall we? If we do this in everyday life, it will spread upward into professional life. But as long as people on the ground level put up with it, nothing will change. Try it today.
DTOM| 6.12.12 @ 7:09AM
The other problem with speech heavily populated with obscenity is that it's often impossible to understand the speaker's point. To wit:
"Get that f'ing thing out of my s***t!" Means exactly what?
Another approach is to remind people how ignorant and unintelligible they actually do sound when their active vocabulary only contains two adjectives, two nouns, and two verbs...
DTOM
Albert Constantine Jr.| 6.12.12 @ 8:15AM
When used properly and rarely, profanity can bring attention and focus to a thought or expression. Once profanity is overused, it ceases to do so.
TLP| 6.12.12 @ 8:56AM
Hmmmmm. Civility. I could be wrong but I don't believe that the Writer is talking about the same kind of sh*t that you people are. He's referring to the Sh*ts taken on Police Cars by the Street Gangs in The Muslim's employ (God Bless Them) and the Union Ccksckrs who rampaged through Madison, when they didn't get their way, and the other Union Scumb@g Fcks, who load up the Buses and Riot, at the Homes of their POS PRESIDENT'S enemies! TERRORIZING their Wives and Kids.
You're thinking about that Fat Pr*ck - Ed Schultz, over at MSNBC. The clueless POS who called Laura Ingraham a SLUT, before those things went outta vogue.
You're thinking about Gloria Vanderbilt's little Pole Munvhimg Boy - Anderson Cooper - projecting his after dinner "Extracurriculars" with his Boyfriends, when he calls the Tea Party - Tea Baggers?
You're thinking of that Ccksckr - Mahr - who likes to SAY the word C*nt, because that's what guys like him (Guys whose only acquaintance with Female Genitalia is from the box of Pornos under their Bed, or a Picture on the screen of a booth that they get a fleeting glimpse at, just before Rodzilla makes his appearance through the Glory Hole. Guys like Doctor Douche, and Brooksified.) do. And, then they give $1,000,000 to guys like Obama, who will take money from anywhere he can get it, except from the guys at The Harvard Review, who accused him of asking for sex.
THAT'S what the Author means by - Civility
Not all that other Sh*t, about profanity.
You're welcome.
Occam's Tool| 6.12.12 @ 1:58PM
Beautifully put, Tim.
As for myself, I'm a big believer in the eye gouge and the groin kick. I also like the footstomp, the testicle crush, the ear slap, and the knife in the throat.
Politics ain't beanbag. Beat them anyway that is legal, 'cause our opponents are scumbags and vermin.
Speaking of that, does anyone have the Bathhouse membership or visitor's list yet? Or, best yet, film of the Obummer not fit for family viewing? We get that, and trade for the Khalidi tapes.
Politics ain't tiddlewinks, either.
Please note that I did not use any profanity in the language above. The worst word was "scumbag." Maybe "testicle."
cuban pete| 6.12.12 @ 2:24PM
OT,
You don't have to apologize for testicle. It is the proper name for a part of the male anatomy. However, by comparing leftists to scumbags you may have offended some scumbags. But you knew that.
All the best,
cp
Al Adab| 6.12.12 @ 4:05PM
BTW gang, why a special election in June when the normal general election is this November? Is this some manipulation of the system based on the timing of her resignation? She was clearly unable to perform the duties and responsibilities of the office for over a year. Somehow that doesn't seem a justice to her constituants.
Maxwell| 6.12.12 @ 8:10AM
I got the 'look', then the riding crop! There were a few days when I did not sit down. Of course there was the bar of soap should a word come out of my mouth that was not proper. Even today at 63 years old nothing comes out of my mouth or key board that I would not want my parents to read. My step daughter abides by that too.
Mimi | 6.12.12 @ 8:48AM
When the Dem's decended on the STATEHOUSE in Wisconsin...What a mess, what chaos...they wrecked such a beautiful place...That is when they began to lose any respect the American people had for them...They will forever be looked on as UN-CIVILIZED.! What happened in Wisconsin will be their waterloo.
When in our history did a political party try to change an election....usually after the people speak, no matter how bad the disappointment they accept it... this time the CHAOS prevailed...shame on them as citizens of this democracy!
After the vote is counted in November 2012 and the people speak the Dem's will have their last chance to prove themselves as AMERICANS not BARBARIANS!
THKrupp| 6.12.12 @ 9:19AM
I think a lot of the problem is that the media has a vested interest in keeping things uncivil. No one wants to read or hear about a story in which everone was decent to each other. In countless news articles from both the left and the right I have seen writers try to make a mountain out of a molehill. The media has a need to make every headline attention grabbing as they vie for readership and viewers.
TLP| 6.12.12 @ 3:50PM
Absolutely.
"I'll give you the Headlines. You supply the War."
William Randolph Hearst.
lcdlover | 6.12.12 @ 9:19AM
"Frank F. O'Barski - Shameless. They are painting targets on their enemies, and Gabriele Giffords was just the first victim of their vicious hatred."
It's worse than you think. Much worse.
This is a good article because smarmy insinuations such as the CNN headline the author was struck by and sagaciously analyzes, set the table for comments such as the one above. It was taken from the ThinkProgress site which as you know is regarded as a mainstream progressive. (It's longtime editor-in-chief Faiz Shakir is now also punching the clock for Nancy Pelosi as head of her on-line operations.) Evidently, once all the insinuations, presuppositions, and axiomatic assumptions of the left are absorbed, it goes to the next level, where brainwashing is so complete, the individual loses all perspective.
As it happens I just spent a week and a half writing an article about the ThinkProgress website and their commenters mostly. If you want your mind blown go there or read my bit about it at http://erroneouslyconfident.blogspot.com It's called "Agreement in the nest - waiting for Gotterdamerung on the ThinkProgress message boards"
Sorry to self-promote but someone should look at these guys because they're a little scary. The commenters here have no love for the other side and they can be rough, and ticked off sometimes. But compared to the crew over at TP, AmSpec board regulars are models of magnanimity and dispassion.
loulou| 6.12.12 @ 10:30AM
Is it uncivil to say that Gabby Giffords represented Tucson, AZ while she was living in Houston, TX?
spike59| 6.13.12 @ 6:00AM
no, but it WOULD be inaccurate; Giffords MISrepresented Tucson, AZ
Al Adab| 6.12.12 @ 11:19AM
Such is the state of our politics that it is only when DEMS prevail that the system works. Surely no one could vote for those reactionary republicans or, God forbid, those nasty Conservatives without being misled or coerced. Only the truly intelligent and informed should ever lead us for they know what is best for we plebs.
Bill84728| 6.13.12 @ 9:07AM
Political discourse was just as nasty 'way back when Abraham Lincoln was being likened to an orangutan, or when Preston Brooks caned Charles Sumner nearly to death on the floor of the Senate. Or how about when Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton fought a duel? Then there were the flaps over Andrew Jackson's wife and the mistress of, who was it, Herbert Hoover? Grover Cleveland? Somebody had a love child by a President and there was hell to pay over that.
Michael| 6.13.12 @ 4:47PM
Rev. Jesse Jackson compared Scott Walker to Alabama Governor George C. Wallace. You don't understand, Mr. Goldstein, that was a compliment!!
DMac| 6.14.12 @ 4:37PM
Civility my ass. How can you be civil with people who would destroy you? I am reminded of a quote by the brilliant Civil War General William T. Sherman: "I think I understand the purpose of the South properly, and the best way to deal with them is to meet them fair and square on every issue. We must fight them! Cut into them, not talk to them, and pursue them until they cry "Enough!" War is the remedy our enemies have chosen, and I say, Give them all they want!" Change the words "the South" to "the Left", and there you have it. Politics is war. The Left has proven to be our implacable enemies. Let us use the ammunition that they give us (and they give us plenty) and turn it on them. We must not waste our time talking to them, but instead we must expose their lies directly to the people. Nothing they have done or said should be off limits. We must fight to win, no holds barred.