Saturday 24 December 2016

Mobbing Ivanka: Four reasons elections have gone feral.

Designers brag they will never dress her.
Others want us to know they will shun her line of designer clothes.
Artists posture that she must take their paintings off her apartment wall right this minute.
She's flying coach and a guy boasts on twitter that his husband is going to harass Ivanka because she's on the same flight.  "Your father is ruining this country" "Why are you on this flight, you should be flying private".
She wasn't on her Dad's ticket, for heaven's sake, and Donald isn't even president yet!

I see four reasons for this uncivil meltdown:

1.   Government has been plus-sized and embiggened until it's such a large part of the economy and our personal lives that to win an election has more consequence than in years past.
2.   The Politics of Identity is the antithesis of a republic.   The latter is a rule of law under which all citizens have equal standing.  The former I despise, but it prevails.
3.    The speed of news has picked up.  The uncivil can gang up on others in minutes when formerly they'd hear a snippet of news long after the opportunity to brag in front of cameras had passed.
4.    Civility is undervalued and under-taught.   What sets us above beasts if not manners?

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