Reply #1: On the money, Tay. On the money.

[beachmom]

What is the most troubling is not the campaigns, but quite a lot of Americans, who are not even that interested in politics, now embrace the notion that "the politics of personal destruction" is perfectly fine and should be used in conversing with friends about politics. They learned this from Fox News, right wing talk radio, and even the snarky traditional media, which peddle a softer version of personal attacks. When I protest and say that this is not right, that these are real people, their response is: "Well, then they shouldn't have run for president." Honestly, I am troubled by any "swiftboating", even against Republicans. I don't like lying and I don't like sleeziness. The Democrats are not as bad as the Republicans, but by golly they are trying to be as bad.

Sometimes I wonder if the Clintons aren't suffering from a sort of PTSD from all the insidious right wing attacks on them in the '90s. Many of the attacks were beyond cruel, and utterly untrue. Even the ones that were true were overdone and crossed the line in interfering with their personal lives. But in "fighting back", they learned to be like their enemy, and this is even more apparent now. Obama and his supporters are at risk of suffering from the same PTSD, when you start thinking only in terms of GETTING THEM AT ALL COSTS for the pain the attacks have caused to Obama and his family. But it really is about resisting the temptation of "going to the dark side of the force", and we must struggle with it every day. I think Obama thinks this because he has said it before: you can hear in spite of it all empathy toward Hillary and everything she was put through in the '90s. I read that he was quite sympathetic when she broke down in NH. It does not matter that the empathy has apparently not been returned -- the point is to stay true to yourself and remember why you got into the struggle in the first place.

Yesterday, there was a diary with a title "Who is Behind Spreading the E-mail Smears of Obama". It made the Rec List, but many voiced disappointment that they didn't learn the answer to the headline. The diarist said it was "right wing nuts" who had replied back to his e-mail to debunk the lies. Of course, the REAL answer to the question was staring everyone in the face: WE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE are spreading the e-mail smears of Obama. Now someone is coming up with the lies, but that is less the problem than the SPREADING of the lies. And the spreader of the lies is not Scaiffe or Rush Limbaugh or Fox News or right wing bloggers. No, the spreader of the lies are the ones clicking forward, and many of the people doing that could be friends, neighbors, and even family.

I do not know how to root out the rot of hatred in this country. But I do know that even if we Democrats cleaned up our own act, that that is not good enough. I want the Republicans to do so as well. I welcome a debate between our world view and theirs. I may even agree with them from time to time. But when have we been able to have that debate what with all the noise of personal attacks on our candidates? I had wished that McCain might be up for that debate, but his ambition will allow him to look the other way when the base of his party does the dirty work. He'll feign annoyance, but then allow them to do their evil deeds, like that GOP ad in NC. Until the American people make the decision of "No, not this time" and STOP FORWARDING THE E-MAILS or gossiping about the lies at the water cooler, we're still going to be struggling with this.

And unfortunately, the liberal blogosphere is tugging back and forth between just fighting fire with fire (highly unhelpful) or heeding Obama's calls to rise above.