Can we still have Reasonable Discourse?


I am not an advocate or a fan of disruptiveness in public discourse. We seem to have become a terribly impolite, as well as a stupidly tolerant society. I don't understand why congressmen need to accept being berated by constituents at events that are intended to inform their constituents. If events of this type devolve into displays of disorderly conduct, then polite citizenry gets marginalized.
It's hard to figure out. Has the world become coarser over time? Or is this a sort of pendulum that is swinging the other way in reaction to the excesses of the past when the clamp down on this sort of activity was violent. American citizens have managed to get a lot of concessions against government crackdowns for the most part, but there has certainly been a lot of violence involved too. Still, there is a need for a government, no matter how much we may dislike it, and that also means we need to have some sort of public discourse.

What is sad is that the day of the town hall meeting may be over, and discourse will be managed through different mediums., at least when it comes to subjects that lead to passionate and loud protests disrupting what should be respectful discourse. But respectful discourse doesn't make for the nightly news either.

Civility will return when the fourth branch of government stops giving airtime to loud protests, which sadly means never. The squeaky wheel gets the grease is how the saying goes for a reason. So, when people get passionate about things, we are going to have to do our best to keep some perspective, and look to other resources to get our information.

Either that, or we are going to have to allow the police to more aggressively control meetings of this type. Honestly, I think that such police action is becoming necessary, but it probably has to be coupled with increased legal penalties for causing such a disruption. Protest is laudable, and a key part of democracy. However, so is education and communication, and tampering with the lines of communication is an attempt to subvert democracy, which is something we may have to address much more closely in the near future.