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Attack Politics – “Business As Usual” That Needs a “Going OUT of Business” Sign

Here’s a letter from the local fish wrapper:

Let’s get past the negative approach to elections
Chris Talkington’s July 23 letter to the editor belittles three Republican politicians because they did not serve in the military (“… hunkering in his lawyer’s foxhole … snookered five deferments to escape Vietnam …”), while describing a Democrat who did serve as a “patriot in uniform.” Talkington contends, thereby, that the Democrat would advance veterans’ issues and infers the Republicans would not.

The political bias of his comments would be less obvious had he expressed similar condemnation regarding a former Democrat U.S. president who actively avoided military service (while struggling to remain politically viable) and who actually wrote of loathing the military.

Can’t we get beyond the ad hominem attacks that serve no purpose and only alienate civil discourse? Support your candidates for their positive positions on issue, rather than assail and impugn the motives, character and patriotism of others.

CHERYL KAATZ

Buhl

Since the Times News has a tendency to NOT post many of my responses, I figured I could put it here, too. So here’s what I had to say back:

I’ve seen this sort of bad behavior on both sides of the aisle. I remember quite frequently hearing that people who support bringing the troops home safely and letting the Arabs fix their own problems were “unpatriotic” and “didn’t support the troops.” I’ve been a life-long supporter of Republicans even as far as supporting GWB in 2000 but I’ve had fellow Republicans attack me as “unpatriotic” for saying invading Iraq was a mistake even before the first bombs were dropped.

I just can’t see getting angry at the Dems for taking a play out of “our” book when many Republicans (and certain media mouthpieces that spew the neocon faction of the party’s ‘party line’ as if it were unbiased news) have ALSO not only failed to raise the bar for civil discourse but have buried the bar at a new low by, to borrow Ms. Kaatz’s words, “impugn(ing) the motives, character and patriotism of others.”

What was that old adage about a mote in one person’s eye and a beam in the eye of another?

Do you have thoughts on this? If so, please leave a comment….