Political Civility

An amazing thing happened the other day. I was playing WoW. (That's not the amazing part, just go with me on this.) I was hanging around Nagrand, grinding Kurenai rep when the subject of politics came up in chat. Now, let me first say, I'm a total troll. I'm sure all of us have a little troll in us, that comes out only to throw mindless stereotyping insults at people with differing views, primarily over the internet. But mine's much bigger than that. Luckily, I know that I have trollish tendencies, so I decided to leave general chat to avoid making an ass of myself. (This blog doesn't count, it's not aimed at anybody in particular!)

About a half-hour of slaying Ogres later, I decide to try and see if they're done making life miserable. Unfortunately I got caught up in the argument--The main subject at this point was free healthcare, which I strongly believe should be the norm. Now here's where the amazing part comes into play...My opponents in this debate, and let me assure you, I WAS outnumbered, were perfectly reasonable human beings. Rather than trolling me and calling me a "bleeding-heart pussy" or "liberal fag", they simply asked me calmly to explain the logic behind my opinions. And when I finished, they told me that while I have a point, they still disagree with me. Then the reverse happened, and we came to the conclusion that we differ in our opinions, but we all have perfectly valid points.

That was it.

It was incredible. And the effect of their civil attitude towards me was contagious; my troll never showed for the fight. No insults were thrown in either direction, no baseless, ignorant claims were made by either side, and in fact, we actually thanked each other afterwards for the insight. Now, this may be incredibly pussy-ish and liberal of me, I'm not quite sure, but it strikes me that this is how politics should be. No more of either side trying to uncover dirt on the other, no more of schmoozing to lobbyists, special interest groups, or even just random demographics...Just two people, stating their opinions, explaining them, and being friendly to each other.

And here's where my political view comes in: NONE of the politicians are doing this. Obama and a couple of lesser candidates are trying to do this, but no one is truly succeeding. Clinton, in fact, is pissing all over sportsmanship and civility. Obama, while he doesn't mudsling, still tries to convince every little demographic that he's on his side...And I know that's how the game is played, but it doesn't have to be that way.


So here's a plea to any and all politicians who may read this (all zero of ya): Be civil. Bring the heart back to politics, and cut off all that disgusting fat. I'm sick of voting against someone, I want to start voting for someone. Is that too much to ask?

Until then, I'm going to stick to WoW. At least there, the fighting is less underhanded.