I suppose the term "modern" may not apply, since negative campaigning, and character assassination have been going on between politicians since... well since there have been politics. I am troubled, however, by the current level of fear mongering from the right, and the left not doing anything to stem the tide.
What I want is a good honest debate between the conservative and the progressive points of view. I think both sides offer good ideas, and we don't hear them. Instead we get authoritarian nonsense from the right and nothing of value from the left.
Recently, I read an article about the aide to a congressional representative that tweeted a rather coarse critique of the President's reaction to the fear mongering around the Park 51 Community Center. The tweet congratulated the President for his diplomacy, and stated, in less polite terms that the individuals against the center were not versed in the Constitution and were less than intellectual. The critique, though crude, was spot on.
Every federal elected official swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. This means, at least in my mind, that while individually one may think it isn't a good idea, they would calm the crowd and assert the right of the group to exercise their first amendment right to peaceful assembly wherever they choose. Several of them not only provided no aid to these American Citizens in the enjoyment of that right, but inflamed crowds to strip this right from these citizens.
So this Congressional Aide, tweeted his critique, it got picked up by some on the other side of the aisle, and in turn, he was critiqued for using crude language. Instead of defending the sentiment, and even apologizing for the language, he closed his twitter account. That was lame. He was correct, and if he was willing to put his statements out there for all to see, he should stand by them.
Currently the situation calls for the Right to be wing-nuts and for the Left to be wimps. Real conservatives need to speak up, put these usurpers in their place and get real ideas for solving our crises, and real progressives need to help them by also speaking up and sending these clowns back to the circus.
