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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steve Lokness who wrote (148695)	11/1/2010 9:50:01 PM
From: epicure	Respond to of 543604

I go out of my way to avoid people I cannot respect- if I do happen to find things out about them that are off putting. I don't deal with anyone I can't respect, at least I don't deal with anyone of whom I know anything that would make me not respect them- and I'd like to keep it that way. I also try NOT to find out anything about people in 3d, in terms of their politics, if I have to work with them or do business with them- because I don't want to be stuck interacting with people I can't like. I'm sure I could avoid calling them tea bagging idiots- but I would probably give them a look of disdain. I'm not sure I can control that. That's the great thing about the internet, at least in one way- you can just turn people off (with ignore, or by skipping their posts) if you don't respect them. On the other hand, people here pour their guts out, politically speaking, and in every other way, so you know who you don't respect pretty quickly. That's the difference between 3d and the internet. In 3d you don't know as much about how and what people think. You want a civil society? Don't let people chat to each other. I'm sorry for you if you have to deal with people you do not respect. That's sad. And icky. Or I should say, I would find that sad and icky, and a tremendous waste of the limited life units I am allotted here.

To: Steve Lokness who wrote (148695)	11/1/2010 11:49:08 PM
From: wonk	Respond to of 543604

...Surely you can see the difference if you think of how you might treat President Bush if you were to meet him. You might think of him as a moron, but surely you would treat him with respect.... Dems generally do treat the Office and the President himself with respect. But respect is not in the Republican playbook, in fact just the opposite, because they don't accept that anything different from their point of view is legitimate. Perhaps you forget the 8 year war on Clinton with respected republican leaders suggesting that Hillary Clinton murdered Vince Foster, and others accusing Clinton of cocaine smuggling out of the Mena airport in AK. Perhaps you forget the farce of the Reps losing seats in both the House and Senate in the 98 election and going forward with the House vote for impeachment in a lame duck session, when every single poll showed that the American people were against such action. Pick any prominent Democratic politician in the past 20-30 years and the Republican side has used gutter language to demonize them. Of course, politics ain't beanbag but the temperature has been raised by whom? So you want the Dems to unilaterally disarm - when they come across as Milo Milquetoast already? Unless and until the other side begins to show signs of being grownups, what one learned on the playground applies - a bully only understands a punch in the nose. This is respect? – Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) was forced to apologize for “calling President-elect Barack Obama a ‘Marxist’ and comparing him to Adolf Hitler.” [11/12/08] – Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) also compared Obama not only to Hitler, but also Hugo Chavez. [07/09/09] – Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) questioned whether President Obama was an American, saying: “Well, his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven’t seen any birth certificate. You have to be born in America to be president.” [02/23/09] – Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) also questioned Obama’s citizenship, saying birthers “have a point” and that “I don’t discourage it.” [07/29/09] – Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) said she was “very concerned that [Obama] may have anti-American views.” [10/17/08] – Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) called Obama “an enemy of humanity” for his pro-choice views. [09/26/09] – Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) called Obama “a more serious threat to America than al Qaeda,” and said he was “a dedicated enemy of the Constitution.” [07/22/10] – Rep. Steve King (R-IA) said that the Obama administration was a “gangster government.” [11/12/09] – Bachmann, too, accuses Obama of heading a “gangster government.” [06/10/09] – As Republican vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin famously said Obama is “palling around with terrorists.” [10/04/10] – Palin also said the president was being advised by “thugs” from Chicago. [06/10/10] Google some of the signs from the Tea Party rallies - or go reread some of Suma's reports from hate radio land. They are vile. Certainly, civility is necessary in a pluralistic society, but the Republicans political leaders don't believe in it. Fear works. Demonization of the other works. In those cases where Reps have indicated a willingness to work with the Dems to jointly solve problems they've been prostrated and gutted on the alter of Rush - and immediately backed down. AM hate radio and Fox control the 24x7 messaging and no Rep. dare reach a hand across the aisle. In a better world we could all join hands and sing kumbaya, but demonstrable actions over 30 years have shown that all that gets one is a stiletto in the kidneys.