The New "Civility"

You may recall the shooting of  Gabriella Giffords back in 2011. Democrats hoped, as they always do, that the shooter would be some Republican lunatic. As usual they were wrong. Not deterred, they immediately seized on Sarah Palin's graphic use of what appeared to be the images of congressional districts seen through a rifle sight on her web site as, if not the proximate cause of the shooting, at least a vile indicator of the incivility of the then political landscape.

Democrats embraced the "civility" strategy.

"TUCSON — President Obama offered the nation’s condolences on Wednesday to the victims of the shootings here, calling on Americans to draw a lesson from the lives of the fallen and the actions of the heroes, and to usher in a new era of civility in their honor."

At the time it was clear that they meant that Republican rhetoric was over the top and the root of the lack of civility in the public forum. This all took place in the shadow of the then recent 2010 "Tea Party" election. The new strategy was just another in a long line of efforts to get us to shut up and sit down.

It was a sham from the start of course. We have always been the polite party. The 2008 Presidential election, if proof is needed, demonstrated that we still were. Kid glove treatment for Barry. Using his middle name, Hussein, was verboten, for example.
 

Now it is 2017, Barry is out and Donald is in. And, this is the new "civility".

CA Dem Chair: ‘All Together Now: F*ck Donald Trump!’ as Crowd Holds Up Two Middle Fingers (VIDEO)

Cristina Laila May 20th, 2017 7:52 pm 1614 Comments

California – The classless Democrats gathered in Sacramento for a state convention on Saturday. They had some harsh words for the President as they chanted, ‘F*** Donald Trump!’.

AP reports:

California’s elected Democrats had tough words for President Donald Trump and the GOP Congress on Saturday, urging their party’s fired-up activists to work against the 14 Republicans in the state’s congressional delegation.
In a sign of the vigor of the party’s distaste for the president, outgoing party Chair John Burton, a longtime Democratic lawmaker and powerbroker known for his blunt and profane manner, extended two middle fingers in the air as the crowd cheered and joined him. “F— Donald Trump,” he said.

Video of crowd with middle fingers in the air after outgoing CA Dem Chair, John Burton screamed, ‘F*ck Donald Trump!’…"

Note that the person leading this demonstration of complete nitwittery is not some fringe player. He is the outgoing chairman of the California Democratic Party. Very high profile democrats are in the audience. Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsome, among others,  addressed the convention. Are they going to be asked by the press whether they will disavow this sort of verbal thuggery? I know, stupid question.

While the outburst above is extreme, it is not inconsistent with Democrats latest strategic brilliance.

"Swearing has become such a part of Democratic stump speeches that profane clips have become routine in Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez's speeches. With children on stage behind him, Perez told an audience in Las Vegas this weekend that Trump "doesn't give a shit about health care."

We have known who they are for a very long time. Thanks to Donald J. Trump they are finally coming out of the closet. I am sure it will serve them well.

Human Nature 2, Civility and Gridlock

You will often hear politicians and pundits complaining about government gridlock.

Anytime you hear this be assured that the speaker either has no understanding of the nature of the history of the founding of our Constitutional Republic or is a Democrat trying to shut up any opposition to their grand plans. Unfortunately, usually both.

Our system of government is designed to be slow and cumbersome. Checks and balances are in place to prevent humans from being human. It is supposed to be very difficult to move legislation through the House and the Senate and get a President to sign it into law.
If it was easy the route from a Constitutional Republic to an Authoritarian State administered by the political elites would have been a quick one. We are seeing, in Obama's Executive actions, what the Founders were trying to prevent. Not being able to get Congress to go along with his wishes he has invoked "Gridlock" (the prescribed state of normal for a Constitutional Republic) in order to justify his actions.

It is demoralizing to watch supposedly informed policy makers and their critics display their utter lack of understanding of our Constitutional Republic. The Founders were very clear that they were creating a system where getting anything done politically would be very difficult. Persuasion and compromise would be the only paths to legislation. That was the point. Every new law infringes our liberty. It was never their intention that we should have 51 legislatures filled with career politicians doing nothing but passing laws day and night.

Civility has never been part of American politics. Today whenever the admonition to be civil in politics is issued it is from the mouths of Democrats and actually means Republicans should shut up and go along with whatever it is Democrats want to do.

Politics were so "civil" around the time of the Founding that Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr fought a duel with pistols. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burr%E2%80%93Hamilton_duel  Hamilton died of his wound.

Things were so civil when Lincoln was elected President that political cartoons portrayed him as a monkey.

In 1856 things were so civil..."In 1856, a South Carolina Congressman, Preston Brooks, nearly killed Sumner on the Senate floor two days after Sumner delivered an intensely anti-slavery speech called "The Crime Against Kansas".^[2] In the speech, Sumner characterized the attacker's cousin,^[3][4] South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler, as a pimp for slavery.<sup>[5]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Sumner

Brooks never suffered any real consequences for his attempted murder. 

 " Although an attempt to oust him from the House of Representatives failed, and he immediately resigned his seat, he received only token punishment ( a $300 fine. A fairly large sum at the time) and was re-elected by the people of South Carolina." http://www.ushistory.org/us/31e.asp

In fact, Southern newspapers  applauded his actions and suggested there should be much more of the same.

George W Bush was routinely vilified in and out of the press as a Nazi, warmonger, war criminal and everything else under the sun by every Democrat with a mouth.

"Politics ain't bean bag" has been a saying in active use since 1895.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finley_Peter_Dunne

Civility and Gridlock lamentations have only one goal, as I stated earlier: To bully us into going along. My advice? Don't.</sup>