Our political discourse has become too self righteous and hypocritical. What is good for the goose is not for the gander. We are judgemental. We don’t think.
Now, let me be clear, we Americans are not notorious for our intellectual discourse and thoughtfulness. It’s not our nature or our style. We are blunt. We are straightforward. But in an age of instant knowledge, instant publication and a balooning discourse, it behooves us to understand that with our rights of free publication and speech come with responsibilities. We are utterly failing to even acknowledge, let alone fulfill these responsibilities. We do so at our peril because those who exercise their rights unfettered by responsibility will have those rights taken from them in reaction to such profligacy.
We as Americans have a long and rich history of bitter political battles going back all the way to Adams and Jefferson. Even by today’s standards some of the language in that race was outrageous.
Adams’ supporters ripped Jefferson, calling him … “a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father… raised wholly on hoe-cake made of coarse-ground Southern corn, bacon and hominy, with an occasional change of frecassed bullfrog.”
[Jefferson’s election] critics warned, would bring "dwellings in flames, hoary hairs bathed in blood, female chastity violated... children writhing on the pike and halberd."
Thus it is hard to say that any of the recent rhetoric about terrorism, untword associations, or evil intent is new. Playing on the fears and frustrations of the populace is not new. In an age when we have immediate and instant access to those words and they reach millions of people electronically and in print; when they are published and broadcast on the air waves, on the internet, on cell phones and in e-mails; in an age where there is no time to digest, refute or repudiate them before the next barrage and in an age where the ease with which the internet and the blogosphere can be stirred to a maelstrom in about five seconds, we really ought to be careful. Just as it is not right to shout fire in a crowed theater, it is not right to shout terrorist to a crowd on the internet, on TV or anywhere else. It is manipulative and dangerous. It divides us.
I don’t know who in this campaign has been more divisive or manipulative and I don’t care. It divides us. It makes us less. It demeans our writing and our speech. It demeans our campaigns. It demeans us as humans. Today we can not only revel in the enormous freedoms and access we have to put in our two cents, we need to step back, look at our responsibilities to those around us and try act in a manner that gives credit to the intelligent, decent, tolerant and understanding people that we aspire to be. We have great opportunities for unity, understanding, compromise and progress. There are those who will stand in the way of that progress and that opportunity. You can not combat them if you emulate their behavior.
Before we make a choice we may regret for the next four years, the accusations against Barack Obama should be carefully considered, as">http://www.testimoanials.com/blog/blog1.php/2008/10/10/the-difference-between-jefferson-davis-a">as they are here.
Posted by: Burr Deming | October 11, 2008 at 07:05 AM