  Zygote Design bemoans what he sees as the urlLink death of civil political discourse in American politics and asks: When did, “I disagree with the war in Iraq and I think the current administration has sacrificed lives needlessly in a conflict that wasn’t justified” suddenly become not good enough? Firstly, when it comes to civility, things could be urlLink much worse --but I get the general point. But I think it has to do with the fact that, “I disagree with the war in Iraq and I think the current administration has sacrificed lives needlessly in a conflict that wasn’t justified” became quite literally, not good enough. It didn't make political headway. It wasn't working. So if reasoned discourse objection to the "distinguished gentleman from X"'s policy doesn't actually succeed--the options left are to (1) concede or (2) go nuclear If people don’t think your opponent is wrong–maybe you can convince them he’s operating from nefarious or otherwise evil motivations.
After all, it’s a lot easier to object to someone if they are a total scumbag. If they just disagree but you both share the same basic values/moral norms--then you might ACTUALLY have to have a discussion/argument/debate with them...and that ain't likely to occur these days. 
