I was thinking about the big brouhaha over Joe Wilson screaming at the President, and then today while perusing the internets I noticed that Swarzenegger had a similar incident happen to him in California the other day. Now, in the latest incident, the Governator has vetoed a bill with a rather witty acrostic. 

All of that got me thinking about the entire notion of Civility within American politics.  People are lamenting that the Wilson incident marked a departure from level headed discourse in national politics, but they seem to be forgetting Abraham Lincoln jumping out of the window in the Illinois legislature, or New York State’s recent walk out, or even Senator Charles Sumner’s beating on the Senate floor.

So is this just the media making a mountain out of a molehill, or has the level of discourse eroded away?

So is this just the media making a mountain out of a molehill, or has the level of discourse eroded away?

Yes. Same ol same ol. the difference, i think, is the kind of language leveled at the president, and the context.

the media love to encourage amnesia. it helps them report the same stories every few years

civility is a myth in general in my experience.

Ol’ Budder - 28 October 2009 12:53 PM

So is this just the media making a mountain out of a molehill, or has the level of discourse eroded away?

It’s certainly not an overreaction. It’s endemic of the current political culture and American culture as a whole. Americans, while saying they despise it, eat it like ...whatever you eat eagerly.

For example look at television. What is America’s current favorite tv genre? Reality, edited and contrived to elicit the maximum visceral response from the viewer. Now compare that to political theater. There’s not much difference.

Whether it’s Grayson (D) calling republicans the enemy of anything good in this country, Hannity calling democrats evil or the Gossilen whores ignoring their kids: it’s all pre-written theater fed to the masses.

Prewritten theater indeed. That’s why the only thing left on TV worth watching (now that Battlestar Galactica is over) is basketball and golf. But I often wonder if even those are prewritten.