I Don'T Know Where To Put This

I Believe Good Manners Are Important - A Plea for Civility in Political Discourse

If they ever allow us to start creating new groups, I'm going to create a group called "I Believe Good Manners Are Important." But in the meantime, this will have to do.

I was very fortunate, and pleasantly surprised, to have gotten almost all respectful, if not all completely positive, responses to my last post, in which I said that I support Donald Trump.

But when I responded to an earlier post, in which someone asked if Hillary Clinton would be our first woman President if elected, I got a very nasty response from someone who attacked my femininity. I said that yes, Hillary Clinton would be our first woman President if elected, but that electing a woman president wouldn't be nearly as big an accomplishment as electing a good president who would have our best interests at heart, and someone told me to get a f---ing grip and that I had way too much testosterone, as if I can't really be a woman if I'm not supporting Hillary Clinton. At first, I tried speaking up for myself and informing this person that women do not vote as a block, but then I realized that that was probably exactly what she wanted, and that I didn't need to defend my femininity, especially to some ignorant, foulmouthed kid who knows next to nothing about me. So I ended up blocking her and deleting my response to her.

But I've seen plenty of disrespect from both sides during this election season (though not on my last post, thankfully). I'm always saddened when I see someone refer to Obama as "the ape who occupies the White House," or some other racist comment. This makes Republicans look bad and gives Democrats more ammunition to use against us. Some, though not all, Democrats love to call conservatives racist, and this just gives them more grist to their mill, so to speak.

And Democrats who label all Republicans, especially white Republicans, as racist, sexist, or both, or resort to other personal attacks when someone disagrees with them aren't doing themselves any favors either. Labeling all conservatives racist or sexist is a form of social and political blackmail and needs to stop. I've seen just a little bit of that here, but I haven't spent too much time on this site during the last few months. But I've seen lots of it on youtube, Facebook, and other social media sites and chat rooms. Not only is this very disrespectful, it shows a great deal of ignorance and makes your side look bad too.

This isn't some battle (or war) that can be won by attacking our "enemies" (those on the other side of the political aisle). The only way we can save our country is if we all pull together and work to make this a place where the rights and freedoms of all people are respected. And it all starts with treating each other with kindness and respect.

Divide and conquer seems to be a favorite strategy of some politicians these days. Maybe it has been a strategy longer than I'm aware of, but it seems to be happening more and more lately. As long as they're able to keep blacks and whites, the poor and the rich, Muslims and Christians, and liberals and conservatives at each other's throats, we won't look up and see what they're doing to all of us. Any attack on any group - racial, gender, religious, or socioeconomic - ultimately hurts all of us.

I don't believe in political correctness, but I do believe in respect. I think that political correctness is a lame, counterfeit substitute for genuine respect. I long for the days when people were generally expected to be respectful toward one another, and there was no perceived need for political correctness. Of course, certain words should never be used, such as the "n" word. But if you have genuine respect for others, it will show. And if you don't, that will show too, even if you know all the right words to use.

Maybe things have gotten better on here since I got that nasty response from that girl. Generally, this seems to be a very friendly site and I usually have a very pleasant experience here. But politics has a way of bringing out the worst in people. Actually, now that I've checked out some more political posts on here, I'm afraid that it hasn't gotten much better. :(

I hope that we can all come through this with our friendships intact, including friendships between people who see things differently. True friendship is such a precious thing and isn't so easy to come by. It certainly isn't worth it to throw away a good friendship just to make a political point.

Okay, I'm getting off my soapbox now. Have a great rest of the weekend, everybody.