Friday, February 11, 2011

Civility Movement May Be Lost on Right Wing

In the days that followed the Tuscon shootings, I  listened to the media talk about the ugly, violent rhetoric that has permeated the airwaves these last couple of years.  The thing that irked me about these discussions is that one of the republican panelists almost always said something to the effect of "Let's face it, both sides are guilty of this," a statement that with one exception, was accepted by the host at face value.  My response is "No, let's not face it, both sides are not guilty."   We can think of many dozens of examples of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and others not only spreading lies to incite the right wing, but also inviting  sedition, revolution and violence. The right wing has only cited one example to support their claim that democrats do it, too-Alan Grayson's speech on health care reform in which he explained the republican plan for health care.  There was nothing incendiary about that speech.  Democratic party politicians are always civil.  With the notable exception of Randi Rhodes, most liberal talk show hosts have, for the most part, been civilized in their discussions.  

Someone pointed me to a website, http://www.nolabels.org/, which is a group of moderate republicans and moderate democrats who want to support a more bi-partisan, civilized way of governing.  This sounds like a great idea if they can influence the right wing to stop their crazy talk and lies.  I joined this group, but with a mindful eye on the right wing and what they do to tone down their talk.  I have always believed that the democrats are too nice and not sufficiently assertive; and that the party has suffered for this.  I am not confident that the the right wing is going to be tamed by No Labels and other such groups.  I hope that I am wrong.



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