Nation needs more civil discourse

[BridgeTheGap]

When a deranged man shot 19 people in Tucson three months ago, killing U.S. District Judge John Roll and five others, and nearly killing U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the Pima County sheriff pointed a finger at “the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government,” and went on to criticize Rush Limbaugh and other radio talk-show hosts for fanning the flames of bigotry and hatred.

Sheriff Clarence Dupnik was off base. There was no evidence that such factors or individuals had anything to do with Jared Loughner's attack at a Giffords meeting for her constituents. But he voiced a valid concern about the state of dialogue in our republic, which has become so coarse and polarized that it is affecting our ability to deal with our problems.

The concern was widely expressed after the shooting, partly because Trey Grayson, then Kentucky secretary of state, revealed that Giffords had written the night before to congratulate him on becoming director of Harvard University's Institute of Politics, saying, “I would love to talk about what we can do to promote centrism and moderation. ... We need to figure out how to tone our rhetoric and partisanship down.”

Giffords, a Democrat, and Grayson, a Republican, met in 2005 as part of the first class of Rodel fellows of the Aspen Institute, which calls them a bipartisan group of “promising young political leaders ... committed to sustaining the vision of a political system based on thoughtful and civil bipartisan dialogue.”

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20110410/COLUMNISTS12/304100046/1016/OPINION/Al-Cross-Nation-needs-more-civil-discourse?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Opinion|s

[LaurenG]

1. It's more that the republicans need to clean up their mouths

When they aren't flat out sowing bs they are inciting unstable people.

[Doctor_J]

2. But Hate Radio and Cabal News aren't going to tone it down,

so what the opinionist is really saying is, "leftists and Dems should be even meeker than they already are, and maybe when the fascists completely take over they'll be nice to us"

Unrec this stupid false equivalence.

[Zoeisright]

3. Bullshit.

Repukes aren't civil and they have no intention of EVER being civil. They lie. All the time. Period. And the only way to fight that is to FIGHT. HARD.

And Dupnik was NOT off base. Repukes have been inciting violence for decades. And they need to be stopped.

What a pile of steaming bullshit.