A Little Civil Discourse...

I guess they didn't get the Obama memo on toning down rhetoric.

My biggest concern is that, rather than wage or encourage a "war of ideas" these people - congressmen - are really encouraging a war on people.  By branding some amorphous group called "Tea Party" as "racist" and simply lying about "Tea Party's" desire to bring back Jim Crow laws and hang black congressmen from trees, they really are whipping up fear and encouraging hatred of a whole group of people.  So, whenever one of these listeners sees someone they think is "Tea Party" they're supposed to be afraid, then be angry, then do something about it.

Why not simply encourage their constituents to engage in thoughtful discussion with their neighbors?  Why not encourage them to discuss common values and to seek solutions to common problems?  Why not simply ask them to peacefully lead those misguided souls they may think are "Tea Party" to the Truth and the Light of the Progressive Solution?

I've listened to more crazy excerpts from "Tea Party" speeches than I have from progressive speeches, and I've never heard anyone say we need to hang black people from trees or that we need to reinstate Jim Crow laws or that they're happy that black people are perpetually unemployed or any other thing.  I've never heard "Tea Party" say they want poor people to starve or old people to die.  I've never heard "Tea Party" say that liberals should "go to hell".

It's a sick, sick world out there in Progressive Land.  I wish that the people trapped in that place could see the truth of what conservatives are saying.  If they then decide they don't like the ideas, that's fine.  That's what America is about.

We're not about demagoguery, though.