"Political Swine Flu Has Struck"

Sorensen's Bob Gibson is the author of an essay about civility in politics— published in Sunday's Daily Progress.

Now is the time for an injection of a little civility into the body politic. Many politicians have succumbed to a political swine flu of sorts. They behave a bit like pigs as they slop through campaigns and sessions of Congress trying to slime opponents with objectionable labels and ill motives.

Americans are free people, a Fluvanna County friend said recently, so that “Babbling idiots have the right to tarnish their public character just as poorly run businesses in a free market should have the right to fail. In this way, hopefully incivility takes care of itself.”

The friend, Stephen Scott, added, “I don’t think we should attempt to codify civility too much lest it become a form of control on free speech.” As a First Amendment guy, I concur. Let the crude, rude and socially ugly characters lose their own arguments as the public reacts to punish outrageous attacks.

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