The Belmont Club talks about recent bad mannered proposals to get Barack Obama into the White House sooner, rather than later:
Since Barack Obama himself has made no such demand and has the good sense not to make it, why should anyone care about the likes of Collins and Matthews? One reason is that they are engaged in a very public display of their bad manners and bad manners are contagious. Manners play an important part in civic life. Why do we stand in line at a buffet and not rush to the front if we can get away with it? Why do we observe rope barriers when it would be easy to duck under it or jump over them? Because it isn’t the done thing. The Collins and Matthews proposal to install Obama in office right away if they could get away with it is in many ways like shouting that in a cafeteria queue that it would be better to clamber over the steam tables because you’re in a hurry to eat. JJ McNab observed that most things happen through voluntary compliance.
Good manners are in short supply these days, and sadly that’s true of much of our side as well.
Would you care to elaborate?
It’s just things you see here and there. Minor things really… like, I don’t know, threatening anti-gun people with civil war?
Oh, the little things… I’ll remember to be graceful and have a reasonable discussion when the neue brown shirts stop by to seize my guns and property.
The left has been after the pres. since day one. Remember how he inherited the slowing economy and for six months they hammered him like it was his fault, same as now. Not too long after the war started they did too, again, on the war this time. I seem to remember all the crap Clinton got us into, burning babies, killing women and children and the war(?) in Bosnia. Remember the war in Bosnia, the one where our senate republican leader said that the acrimony stopped at the waters edge? Wel it did and as well as I can remember it always has with our side. Can anyone dispute?
It hasn’t come to that yet Claude. When it comes to that it’ll be a different conversation. Until then, this is in the realm of civil political discourse.
Actually, while I’m sure there are instances of incivility on ‘our side’, the bulk of bad manners I’ve personally witnessed tend to be from smug Democrats. People in my neck of the woods have , almost to a yard, removed all their “McCain/ Palin” signs after being repeatedly told by the media and others that it was “time to work together” and “the election is over, remove your signs”. These admonishments came from both sides.
So, weeks later, whose signs do you see almost exclusively? Why, Obama/ Biden, of course. I took the stickers off my truck the day after the election, (mostly because I felt it was an invitation to have a brick thrown through my window, or some other form of damage) but I still see anti-Bush stickers on cars all over town from four or eight YEARS ago.
And then there are the scattered, random acts of mischief, graffiti, destruction of property, etc., based on political leanings. Once in a while, it escalates to bullying or violence (mostly this is confined to school kids who aren’t even old enough to vote.) A friend of mine tells me that her (white) daughter is being threatened by a pair of black girls who seem to think that there’ll be no repercussions because, “a black man is running things now”.
It seems to me that social conservatives are at a disadvantage precisely because they ARE more civil, and tend to abide more by the rules. Personally, I like to paraphrase Dennis Leary: “I’ve got a long fuse, but at the end of the day, it’s attached to a great big f*cking bomb”.
I further note that it seems to be burning a bit faster lately…
What is it about liberals that they have to disdain every bit of procedure inside our republic. It’s like dealing with a bunch of spoiled children who cry because they can’t open up their presents on Christmas eve.
Liberalism’s downfall isn’t going to be from its failure in policy and ideas, but from the impatience and rashness of its proponents to do everything in a hurry. Abiding by the rules isn’t our weakness, but ultimately our strength. Their lawless nature will be their undoing……..
Good manners are indeed to be valued. Unless you’re standing on the bridge of the Titanic, waiting for a break in the conversation to point out the iceberg ahead. Then, good manners are just plain stupid.
ATL Said; “… It’s like dealing with a bunch of spoiled children who cry because they can’t open up their presents on Christmas eve.”
Oh so true.
The good news is that the Left will eventually eat their own.
The bad news is we will already have been eaten by then.