Set, the only one I have any chance of controlling, is myself. I try, and I flatter myself that I succeed on most occasions, to behave with civility and good manners, that I keep an open mind and avoid non-thinking words. That isn't a hundred percent effective, but then humans should be forgiven some imperfections ... so long as they try to improve themselves.
There are indeed partisan kooks on both sides of the political aisle, as there is in any human herd. Chauvinism is one of the most difficult of all the "weeds" that choke our garden. (Just couldn't resist mixing those.) Even so it seems to me that the volume and degree of outright hatred heard from the Left far exceeds anything from the Right. I consider those holding conservative and Republican views similar to my own as being near the center of the thought and values held by most Americans. If I am wrong, and the Modal grouping IS represented by the extremists we constantly encounter here, then god save America.
I can not, will not believe that Americans have become so cynical, so suspicious of her elected government, so disrespectful of our sons and daughters in the military, as the Left would have us believe. I believe that the Constitution is alive, and that our institutions continue to function as they were intended to. I believe that with few exceptions, those who choose public service do so with the intent to serve and preserve our government and way of life. In recent times it seems we have made public service almost into a crime, and insist upon doing our best to destroy the character of those still willing to run the gauntlet for office.
It takes a strong person to subject themselves to the sort of public pillory that has come to typify national political office. Anything less than perfection will be dragged out and used to destroy the prospective office-holder's character, and in many cases his whole family, even though it has zip to do with qualification for office. Both you and I know that campaigns in the not so distant past were just as nasty and hotly contested by partisan extremists as any today. Modern communications has just made it more difficult to "tune out" the looneys.
If partisan attacks were as violent and constant at the beginning of the Republic, when we were still figuring out exactly how government would work, it makes me much less critical of Adams support of the Sedition Laws. Of course, we learned from them how dangerous it is to try and enforce truth in politics.
