Loss Of Civility
Almost no one is polite anymore. Public discussion has dropped into the gutter and no one seems inclined to climb out. The last 8 years of the reign of the War on Terror™ has turned reasoned debate into wide scale, childish, yelling matches.
The opponents of Proposition 8 have published the names on the donors list of the supporters of the Proposition, and many of the donors are talking of being “blacklisted”. The same article mentioned that the supporters of the Proposition contacted people who gave money to their opponents and threatened to “out” them if an equal donation wasn’t sent to supporters of the proposition [This is called theft by extortion in many jurisdictions].
If you are willing to spend big bucks to support something, why would you worry if your name was published? Political donations are part of the public record that anyone can look at. If you think that your position would be at risk because of being associated with an issue, don’t get involved except by voting.
I can’t believe that people would be so naive as to expect that you could limit the civil rights of a group of people, and that those people wouldn’t react.
November 15, 2008 13 Comments
