Is Civil Discourse on Life Support?

I would invite you to read your fill of The Lady Logician on this subject, please, on the day after the homes of a number of elected officials (both Democrat and Republican) had their homes defaced by vandals.

The electorate needs to grow up and learn how to disagree without being disagreeable. On MSR, we have a conservative, a libertarian and a liberal on the show and while we do disagree on a lot of issues, we still walk away as friends. It’s time to tone down the “election rage” and remember that we are all adults and we are all in this together. We can disagree….no we expect to disagree, but that does not mean that we need to be uncivil in the process.

This is the portion of the campaign where things always get more nasty than usual. We’ve observed it on both sides of the aisle, including friends of mine who are generally much better than that. We see cartoons and pictures of both major party candidates being regularly used which go beyond the normal editorial comment to the simply insulting and offense. (No… I’m not talking about “racist” cartoons. I’m talking about childish, insulting caricatures which offer no real political commentary, but simply seek to belittle the candidates.) But what we need to remember is that one of these two is going to be the president elect in a handful of days. And in January they will be sworn in as our next President. You don’t owe either of them your love and absolute agreement on their policies, but it would be nice if we could give the eventual winner the benefit of the doubt and at least allow them to restock the pens and pencils in the desk of the Oval Office before we start calling for their heads.

Cindy has lots more to say at the link above, and I invite you to take it in. Fight for your candidates – whoever they may be – right up to the last day. But also remember that we’re all still stuck here in this best of all possible worlds once the election is over and we’re going to have some serious challenges ahead of us. Whether it’s Obama or McCain, they are going to need some support through the trying times ahead.