Politics: Dressed-Up Name Calling

While running a virus scan, I got bored and started channel surfing. I ended up watching C-SPAN2 by accident. What caught my attention was the fact that they were debating about traditional marriage and the proposed amendment to The Constitution. According to the caption, they decide on the matter this week. At least in the Senate from what I got.

I could go on about the sides of views presented during my two hour viewing time (since that's how long the virus scan took), but I won't. Everyone knows where I stand on the issue.

What is really surprising to me, however, was the tone of voice the Utah Representative used whenever he would mention a political party, in particular when he said Liberal. It was as if he was insulting the State Supreme Court Judges of Mass. every time he said it. While his argument was well organized and well written, I found this part of his speech rather discomforting.

Has it really come down to this in politics? Has it always been like this? I mean, this doesn't just happen on the Senate and House. I know that much. But I seriously thought that the people whom are elected to represent the people, the real ass-breakers and back-benders of this country, were more mature than to resort to a fancy version of name calling, but apparently, I'm wrong in thinking that those in higher politics are mature individuals.

I've said it once before on Gaia, and maybe even on Shem's Blog for all I know. There are several ways to make your point come across without having to lower your intelligence, or in this case your maturity. I honestly believed the people in higher politics knew and practiced this, but even without the use of curse words, this tone of voice, no matter how passionate one feels about an issue, shouldn't be used in the way I just saw aired on live TV. Someone with this much respect, so much respect that the people of his state elected him to represent their state, shouldn't have to deliver such disrespect even in the most subtle way to a person or a political party in such a way that I saw.

So much for maturity in D. C. Politics.