I mean, REALLY.
The bottom line is that even with U.S. politics’ steady decline into demonization over the past decades, the bar is being lowered each day. There’s always the “Oh, I didn’t really mean it that way” afterward – but the bar is being lowered in political discourse in public and on the airwaves, seemingly each day. It can be argued that the bulk of people don’t use this kind of rhetoric but the number who don’t see it as irresponsible whether it applies to a GOPer or Democrat seem to be decreasing. And just what does that mean in terms of trending and future years?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.