The Surrender of Civility

I hereby declare, with no mincing of words, the complete and absolute surrender of any meaningful debate for the 2012 election. Let us move on to discussions of Romney’s murder trail, to what Obama wrote in a book 20 years ago, to what state Romney lived in, in 2001, and not least of all what Michelle Obama whispered in her husband’s ear last year. 

The concept of Civility is a punchline in and of itself

Politics has gotten personal, and for the first time in this young Americans life, the general acknowledgement is that there is nothing wrong with that. For all the talk of America as a nation divided, the talk that Americans themselves are somehow concerned that negative campaign ads, fiery campaign speeches, personal attacks and distortion of what is fact and what can be expounded away as ‘near fact’, we sure do seem to lap up a good argument over stuff that effects absolutely nothing.

Poll after poll will tell us that Americans are fed up, they’ve had enough, they don’t want anymore, the brunt of these people are lying, You can just as quickly point out source after source that can answer the question of ‘why do they keep doing it if people are sick and tired of it’. You’ve heard the saying before, say it with me, "They do it because it works". Now, people don’t even waste their breath trying to answer the question of what these arguments have to do with anything. What effect will Obama's grades in college affect his approach on education? What will the tax rate Romney paid in 2003 affect his tax policy? Heck, I'd even take those questions being asked, over the current "He must be hiding something, he won't release his college Theseus", or "He must be hiding something, he won't release 12 years of tax returns". Politics is ugly, and anyone wasting our time to convince us otherwise will probably end up losing in the end. Be it in ratings or an election itself.

Americans deserve better, no one doubts this, and with such a quiet consensus in favor of a more civil political discourse, you would think that by now the American people would be crying out to those who seek to represent us. But, unless you constitute answering a poll question as a form of protest, the outrage is gone, or at best feigned, from this year’s election cycle.

On one hand, you have the foreign born, pot smoking, dog eating, Muslim incumbent, and on the other, the tax cheating, wife killing, beholden to the Mormon Church felon who is challenging him. The issue I am trying to address is, that many people will be reading this nodding in agreement at one half of that statement, and then shaking it in a type of feverish anger at the other half. Civility is preached, hypocrisy is exercised.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m probably not helping the cause out much, I’ve posted before trying to poke fun at the mud that is being slung, trying to steer clear of issues that I would think don’t matter (Romney has money in the Kaman islands, Obama saying “Polish Death Camps” instead of “Nazi Death Camps”. I ultimately fail, I even started writing a tenacious response to the new ad that tries to pass responsibility to Romney for the passing of a man's wife. This is because if you don’t bring up at least of a few of these ridiculous, usually improbable, largely irrelevant topics, people stop being interested. You know it and I know it. Sadly, I will probably dismiss most of what I say here in the coming days and weeks, after all, a wise blogger once said, Civility is preached, hypocrisy is exercised.

Put my supposition to the test, ask a friend or colleague what they would like to see happen to the tax code, at best you would get a snarky one or two word response, such as “simplify it!” or “cut it in half!”, any attempt to engage in more discussion then that will probably be met with disinterest or vehemence.  The more likely scenario will play out with just a general level of disgust against one group or another, “The rich need to pay more”, “I need to pay less”. Then ask them what they think about Mitt closing down a paper mill in Indiana, and you could get a lecture about either how there is a smear campaign going on by those rotten liberals or how one candidate is so out of touch we would be fools to elect him into office. The alternative would be someone who has already surrendered, who has already stopped caring.

If I had an answer, if I knew a way to bring the conversation back to fiscal policy, austerity, our troops serving overseas, and things that may actually have an impact on the country past election night, I would be doing it right now. I've always considered myself one to make concise, fact backed arguments to express my views, and to an extent rambling about it here is my attempt, but this is not a call to action, this is a concession speech. Goodbye civility, hello new era of politics, goodbye to a kinder old era where your choice was between an AWOL soldier or a flip flopper, and a new era where you are left between a choice of a candidate that can’t run because he is a felon, and another candidate because he wasn’t born in the US, the time to make an informed, thoughtful choice for the future of this country has been fully morphed into a choice between what disgusts you more, eating dog, or strapping one onto the roof of your car. The choice is yours America; I hope you realize the consequences of your vote more then the circus of conjecture that it is premised on.