Listening the rhetoric now-a-days in politics makes me wonder what planet these people came from. It seems that none of the politicians in power ever had parents that taught them to be civil even in their disagreements with others. You know what I mean? Simple things like talking to others with respect, not interrupting each other while making a point, engaging in a discourse that allows both parties to be fully heard and not demonizing and dehumanizing an opponent just because they are an opponent.
Uncivil behavior by people who are supposed to be serving us should not be tolerated by any American. These people are Civil Servants and appear to not understand the meaning of either of those words whether separated or combined.
A politician loses my vote and attention the minute he begins to treat their political opponents as other than human.
Human beings deserve respect for just being human beings. We are the pinnacle of Creation (or the top species if you are a fan of Evolution). There is nothing like us on Earth. And every human being has value. Even the worst behaved of us are humans and deserve a modicum of respect and dignity. So, to treat someone or speak about them as if they were not human or to stereotype them or objectify them is to reduce them to the equivalent of any other animal on Earth. We do not have the right to do that.
Demonization and objectification only serves one purpose and that is to prevent the hearer from feeling any empathy for the person being vilified. However, these things are easy to say about someone who performs evil deeds and then is unrepentant about them like the shooter in Tucson. It is one way for us to deal with something that is incomprehensibly evil.
And this is where politicians and pundits go astray. They use damning words on people with whom they simply disagree rather than people who have done real evil. This is where we need to draw the line as Americans and refuse to listen or give credence to such misuse of Free Speech. Their approach should be to respectfully disagree and to let the dialogue continue. But, they want to win the debate and marginalize their opposition simultaneously. This is something we should not tolerate as Americans. We should demand civility of our Public Servants and remove from office those who would practice demonization and objectification.
We Americans need to demand a higher standard of elected officials. This needs to begin during an election cycle as we see how they treat their opponents. Mud slinging and disrespect towards their opponents should disqualify them from receiving your vote.
During my campaign, I plan to be unresponsive to any vitriol from my opponents. If they cite facts that happen to be negative about my personality or lack of experience, that is fine as long as they are honest and not making this stuff up. They are also entitled to their opinion.
I do not plan to talk much about my opponents other than to compare their stance on an issue to mine. I will do this in a respectful way. I may disagree with an opponent over some issue but I will do so without being disagreeable.
I plan to concentrate more on what I stand for and what I will do if elected. And you will NEVER hear me bad mouth a former administration. That serves no purpose at all. If a problem has been inherited, I will simply talk about how we are going to solve it. The past is the past and cannot be changed. We can learn from it and not repeat the same mistakes and then move on. Criticism of prior administrations makes for weak mortar in building your own administration.
In order to be a peaceful and prosperous nation, civility needs to be the rule of law for public discourse and in our private lives. And this is why I am running for President. I want Peace and Prosperity for all Americans. This will be the primary goal for all of my policies once I am elected.
More to come.
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