A
civilized dialogue in which those in disagreement refrain from stooping
to insults or knee-jerk generalizations.
Writing
for Politics Daily, Jeffrey Weiss launched
a crusade
against “political nastiness,” stating that “it is time to say
‘enough’” to the slurs and untruths traded by partisans on the left and
the right. Weiss asked those who “still believe that the passion of our
disagreements need not overwhelm the common values that bind us, to
take
back the rhetoric”:
Any
time you see or read or hear anybody step over the line, call them on
it. Do it politely, with kindness and consideration. But do it clearly
and cleanly, with a humble explanation of what they did wrong.
So
when your liberal friend says “they’re all like that” when she hears
about a Tea Partier who utters a racial epithet, correct her gently.
There are many people who are authentically disturbed about the power
of government who are neither racists nor insane and can cite examples
from history to support their fears.
And
when your conservative friend compares Obama to Hitler and the health
care bill to the USSR , correct him gently. Not all slopes are equally
slippery. And the belief that government is the best solution to some
of our biggest problems is an idea with a long and honorable American
history – one that includes notable successes.
Weiss
argued:
Cleaning
up the mess will not be easy. But it can be done. One polite rebuke at
a time. We need a name, of course. I suggest “Civilogues,”
those whose speech is civil.Civilogues unite!
In
an effort to encourage the same level of civil dialogue among Politics
Daily’s readers that we expect of our writers – a “civilogue,”
to use the term coined by PD’s Jeffrey Weiss – we will soon be
requiring commenters to use their AOL or AIM screennames. Personal
attacks (on writers, other readers, Nancy Pelosi, George W. Bush, or
anyone at all) will not be published, period, to make room for a
discussion among those with ideas to kick around.
