(HOST) When it comes to political rough-and-tumble between candidates, veteran news correspondent and commentator Bill Seamans observes that it’s early days yet.
(SEAMANS) Remember that word,"civility"? It used to be a hoped-for quality of political discourse. Well, forget about it. This far from the presidential election we cannot help wondering just how sharp the level of dispute can get. As an immediate example, even before the first state caucus Hillary Clinton accused one of her fellow Democratic presidential candidates of "mudslinging,"
That charge did not come from behind the deniable screen of one of her surrogates but from Hillary, herself, right out in the open during one of their debates. And then from an unidentified source came the slur alleging that Barack Obama was deep down really a planted Muslim agent – a kind of Manchurian Candidate – hardly a civil remark.
We also have the increasingly pungent political tv ads which, if anything, are becoming a disappointing bipartisan bore belaboring the same old, same old heard in all those town meetings, house parties and town diners What is discouraging is that we are at an early stage when Democrats are slashing Democrats and Republicans are doing the same to fellow Republicans.
We ask what can we expect after the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates are finally chosen and start working over each other? Are we on the way to one of the most uncivil presidential campaigns in American history facilitated by the immediacy and accessibility of electronic media like blogs and the 24/7 cable and satellite tv networks and the ubiquitous and often vicious babblethons called radio talk shows.
Are we the people getting fed up regardless of our political persuasion – fed up with an overdose of bipartisan spin, disinformation, hypocrisy, character assassination, hate mongering and just plain lying that is presented to us as political campaigning?
Do we, the constituency groping for real answers to the real problems facing us deserve to be treated this way? Are we really as gullible and malleable as the candidates’ highly paid political strategists think we are? Is our hope for civil political debate really in vain?
As long as four years ago in the New York Times, when those who criticized the Bush administration were being called unpatriotic, liberal pundit Paul Krugman questioned the need for political politeness. He said, "How important is civility? I’m for good manners, but this isn’t a dinner party. The opposing sides in our national debate are far apart……on fundamental issues" – and, he added, "It’s the duty of pundits and politicians to make those differences clear, not to play them down for fear that someone will be offended."
Well, as I said earlier, remember that word "civility"? Is it now an archaic idea kept only by those of us in denial?
Bill Seamans is a former correspondent and bureau chief for A-B-C News in the Middle East.