2020 Election

[Dill]

(11-05-2020, 11:52 AM)bfine32 Wrote: You've got your biased view of why civility left and I've got mine. I always use example of the first SOU addresses after the House flipped given by Bush Jr and Obama.

Bush stated: It was his High honor to speak the words Madam Speaker

Obama stated: nanni nanni boo boo...I won

The speech of US Party leaders constitutes a factual record in the US, doesn't it? 

It is set down in newspaper archives and the Congressional Record.

We can also look at the history of news organizations--the record of how their editors, reporters and commentators have publicly maintained norms of civility (not to mention journalistic standards) or undermined them in their daily presentation. That presentation also becomes fixed as public record. 

If we can agree on what counts as "civility" and what counts as violation of said civility, 

then we should be able to point to a "before" and an "after" in these public records, and a "first time." 

And to identify clearly which individuals, and what actions and party/voter support for such actions, have primarily degraded norms of civility to current Trump levels. 

We can do that if we want to. 

Or we can pick and compare the speeches that fit our "agendas" and "narratives,"  

and declare that is what everyone else is doing too.