Is this a Losing Battle?

99% of the time I love following politics.

I love talking about, writing about, obsessing over, analyzing, etc., politics. It's easy for me to get passionate about it. I can get angry, excited, passionate--generally emotional. But it's the type of emotion that one gets watching a sporting event: you are in to what is going on, frenzied, worried, excited, dismayed, or at some other point on the emotional spectrum. But, like with a sporting event, if things don't go your way, when you get home at the end of the day, those emotions are easily shelved (relative to the concerns of your family, work, friends, and daily life). 99% of the time, that's how my emotions go concerning politics.

There are times, though, when that 1% rears its ugly head.

That 1% hit me last night when I read an article, then read the comments readers had made about it (a newer phenomenon in journalism--an attempt by the mainstream media to be more like the New Media, i.e. the blogs like this one). The story was about President Bush's daughter, Barbara, who was mugged while in Argentina yesterday. She did have the Secret Service with her, but somehow they blew it. Normally I would not pay much mind to this story, since it is a single, isolated event that has almost no connection to policy or politics or really anything that would have a long-term, medium-term, short-term, or any-term impact on our country.

But then I read those comments at the bottom of the page.

It was then that the 1% hit me hard. I became genuinely sad for our country. The sadness I felt reading those comments was very different from my usual politically-induced emotion. It was as though I saw the heart and soul of the nation breathing its last breaths before me. It was as though America was gasping for air, but it was futile, as death was setting in.

As I read about this young lady who was attacked, hatred, abuse, venom, lack of reason, and utter stupidity dripped off the page. It made me think we're so far gone that all my (and hopefully your) efforts to raise the level of discourse are all for naught. I wondered if I'm fighting a losing battle.

Here is what the readers (readers who, by the way, cared enough to click on the link, read the article, and, further, cared enough to comment on it) had to say about the story. Remember, the article was about how the President's daughter was attacked. The comments that broke my heart for our country can be divided into three categories. The first I will call "Cold-Hearted Indifference to a Victim Based on Politics" Comments:

• "Did [the attacker] steal her dignity as well? If so, charge him with petty theft!"
• "they can afford to replace [whatever was stolen]. i won't be surprised if there travel is at gov't expense. it evens out."
• "[Barbara and her sister Jenna] are the Paris and Nicole of Washington, D.C. I'm surprised her pet chihuahua wasn't snatched too."
• "Too bad the Secret Service doesn't protect Barbara's and Jenna's father like this."
• "Selfish, self-centered spoiled brats. Who care's what they are doing anyway?"
• "Ok guys, no problem. As we paid for [her stolen cell phone] with our taxes, she'll buy another one. Congratulations!! now she can get one with bluetooth!"

A young female was attacked and mugged. These people not only don't care, but are happy to then add petty, childish, poorly-grammared insults to her injury, simply because they hate her father. My heart breaks.

Here's the second category of soul-of-America-crushing-comments. Let's call these "Lack of any Reason, Sheer Appeal to Unfounded, Unintelligent Emotion" comments:

• "Why don't they get jobs like everyone else? I guess they're living off the Exxon $$ their dad made off of the rest of us."
• "if those girls were serving in the military like they should be, in irag [editor's note: yes, this person called it "irag"], that wouldn't have happened."
• "I pay for the bush twins' bodyguards, I want my money back to place on my daughters' safety; they are MUCH more important to me than those twins!"

Here we have no regard for logical argumentation or intelligent addition to the political debate. Sheer Freak Show nonsense.

The third category of sadness-for-our-country-inducing-comments combines both the hatred, and the lack of intelligence (only one example this time, as this is a rare breed that should be studied by researchers with PhDs in a remote lab somewhere):

• "who cares with all the oil their moronic dad is getting from this stupid war, they can buy new 'everything' daily. Besides, maybe they were drunk when it happened."

Sad. Very sad.

Hate the President all you want. Loathe his policies. Bemoan his incompetence. All this is fine. But why use an attack on his daughter to spew your America-destroying hatred? Why degrade all hope at civility? Why display your stupidity for all to see? Why revel in your heartlessness? Why?

Are we so far gone that there is no hope?

I pray we are not. One comment gave me a glimmer of hope, that maybe--just maybe--fighting for rational, intelligent, compassionate, well-reasoned, anti-Freak Show dialogue is not a lost cause:

"I don't like many of her dad's policies but I don't think she should get injured because someone doesn't like her dad or America."

Amen. Perhaps hope remains after all.