The Incivility Of It All

It's time to Break It Down!

When life is reduced to a microcosm, and viewed through a contemporary lens, as it often is, we can fail to appreciate all that has preceded this moment in time. In the early 21st Century, some of us are taken aback by the coarse nature of American politics. Perhaps we should not be so discomforted. Or at the very least we should make sure we try to get a better handle on putting it all in perspective.

It is difficult to turn on the evening news, read a daily newspaper, or listen to talk radio without encountering the latest and greatest neo-con bashing of President Obama, or his wife Michelle. As I have noted recently, there has been a steady stream of vitriol oozing from political denizens of the Palmetto State. From Governor Sanford’s threat to refuse stimulus funds for the State, to South Carolina GOP activist Rusty DePass saying that an escaped gorilla (from the Columbia Zoo) was one of Michelle Obama’s ancestors, to Senator DeMint calling for an effort to make Health Care reform the President’s Waterloo (which he added would break him), to Congressman Joe Wilson’s yelling “You lie,” at President Obama as he addressed a nationally televised Joint Session of Congress…the saga continues.

Of course it is important to note this free reign of coarseness is not the singular purview of South Carolinians; far from it. To be sure, examples are national in scope, and limitless in their creativity. The President has been depicted as Hitler, a witch doctor, the Grim Reaper, and countless other purveyors of evil, pestilence, and harm to all mankind.

A couple of hundred years ago, back in the early 19th Century, July 11, 1804, to be precise, former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, and Vice President Aaron Burr dueled…not with banjos, but with pistols. Burr won the duel; Hamilton lost his life. The faceoff took place in New Jersey (Weehawken), because in 1804, dueling was no longer legal in New York, where both men lived, and were political leaders.

Now that, my friends, is uncivil behavior. It is difficult to imagine Rush Limbaugh stepping from behind the comfort, not to mention safety, of his studio microphone, picking up his Glock, calling POTUS on the phone and saying, “OK, you and me at the corner of Connecticut & K at High Noon!” To be fair it is equally unimaginable that Obama would meet him there, but that’s beside the point…both cases, actually. The point is, while we are routinely shocked and amazed by the depths to which people sink these days, under the guise of working through disagreements on the public stage, most of it, especially the rancorous and mean-spirited stuff aimed at President Obama, falls short, substantially, of what was once both legal and unremarkable, if not a standard practice, in these United States.

So next time you are watching some angry guy spiraling out of control, ranting, raving, and spewing ideological venom at President Obama, remind yourself, as you reflect upon “The Incivility Of It All,” that if this were 1809 instead of 2009, that guy would probably have been proposing a duel, and quite possibly would have been within his legal rights to carry out the deed. When put in that perspective, the Sanfords, DePass’ DeMints, and Wilsons of the world seem a little less onerous. A little!

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking on the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com . A new post is published each Wednesday.

For more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post, consult the links below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Obama

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Hamilton

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Burr

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jb/nation/hamburr_1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Sanford

http://www.peoplefordepass.org/biograghy.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_DeMint

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Wilson_(U.S._politician)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_Limbaugh

http://stupidcelebrities.net/2009/09/15/obama-portrayed-as-witch-doctor-photo/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/14/rusty-depass-south-caroli_n_215439.html

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/03/13/sc-legislature-moves-to-override-gov-sanford-on-stimulus-funds/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHV4nDS501Y&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxHKSHvMRWE

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/15/house-disciplines-wilson-outburst/

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/09/15/carter_cites_racism_inclinatio.html?hpid=topnews