Civility, courtesy, good manners, and other quaint notions

On Thanksgiving, Team Huckabee had a thread running on the blog simply entitled “Tell Us What You Are Thankful For.”

There are more than 100 comments on that post, from various people expressing thanks about something or another. Some mention Mike Huckabee, some don’t. Some mention the country, some don’t. They’re just expressions of thanks.

A few are plugging their own web sites, but generally positive.

But there are some who take on a critical tone … in response to a post attributed to Thomas Jefferson. A Ron Paul supporter felt the need to jump into a thankfulness blog to level charges against Gov. Huckabee, culminating in “I’m thankful that I’m dead so that I won’t have to pay all the dumb taxes Mike Huckabee will make,” or something to that effect. (The comment was removed eventually … one more thing for which to be thankful, I guess.)

I have read blogs calling supporters of nearly every candidate mindless drones.”Supporters of [insert name here] are okay, they just don’t have their thinking caps on,” I read. “The smarter ones are coming around to our side,” was elsewhere. “They’re mindless [candidate name]-bots,” read the answer to one question.

Online, it seems like there is no longer a need to obey even the most basic of courtesies. Through the namelessness and anonymity of our computer screens, too many people feel free to loose barrages of insults, ad hominem attacks, and other things that (I hope) they’d never do in person. Why is this?

What is wrong with people, that we can’t discuss issues and candidates respectfully?

A wonderful blogger here on WordPress has recently discussed that she might have to close off comments on her blog because she’s getting assaulted with garbage posts — profanity, insults, and repeated posting of the same things over and over again.

There is no need for that.

If you’re out here making comments, or trying to make the case for your candidate, I would like you to think about this: what is the impression that you’re making?

Do you think that calling me a “paid Huckablogger” (a false charge, by the way — I give to the Huckabee campaign, not the other way around) and calling Mike Huckabee a fascist wins ANY votes for Dr. Ron Paul (to take specific examples)? Does spamming with out-of-context links and insults win any votes for Sen. Fred Thompson?

I don’t think so. What will win votes is rational, reasonable, polite conversation. Be passionate, be strong, but be respectful and polite.

I realize that this doesn’t jive with the popularity of people like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Al Franken, and their ilk, but it’s what works in real life.

We might well be political rivals. We might not agree on anything. That doesn’t mean that you are my enemy. If you view me as an enemy because I support Mike Huckabee and you don’t, then I would submit that you need to rethink your priorities.