A Reprise for Civility?

{link » The Day After by Victor Davis Hanson}

“I wish President-elect Obama well, and hope that even his critics can concede that he waged a successful and often brilliant (if not shrewdly stealthy) campaign.

It seems to me that conservatives have a golden opportunity to offer criticism and advice in a manner that many liberals did not during the last eight years. By that I mean I hope there are no conservative versions of the Nicholson Baker Knopf-published ‘novel’ Checkpoint, the creepy documentary by Gerald Range, the attempt to name a sewer plant after an American President, or the celebrity outbursts that we have witnessed with the tired refrain of Hitler/Nazi Bush — that all have cheapened political discourse. When I hear a partisan insider like Paul Begala urging at the 11th hour that we now rally around lame-duck Bush in his last few days, I detect a sense of apprehension that no Democrats would wish conservatives to treat Obama as they [Democrats] did Bush for eight years.

In the future, criticism should be offered in unified pro-American tones, rather than anti-Obama screeds. When disagreements arise, they should be couched in a sense of regret rather than ebullition. There should be no conservative counterparts of Bill Maher, Michael Moore, or Al Franken.”

Ah, payback. How does one resist? I'll have to think on it a bit. I have it. Rather than take it out on the new President, and in the process continue (in perpetuity) the vicious cycle of payback that not only cheapens political discourse (I really can't see how much cheaper it can get at this point) but also insults the Office formerly held by Washington and Lincoln, take it out on scumbags like Maher, Moore, and Franken. There is no dearth of scum bags in the cesspool whence those three emanate, for that cesspool encompasses the Holyshitwood sewer plant.