Dumbening

The level of public discourse in America has gotten disappointingly low. The response to such a realization, I suppose, must be to try to raise it through some personal contribution. That being more than somewhat beyond me, allow me to endeavor to prove the fact of its occurrence through someone who would presumably feel up to the challenge.

Today's Ann Coulter gives us this gem of a sentiment: "Conason's feeble litany of harebrained predictions reads like a haiku of bum steers." It's hard to imagine a more clumsy effort at invective, isn't it? And this from the Queen of Vitriol.

Compare: "That men should take up arms, and spend their lives and fortunes, not to maintain their rights, but to maintain they have not rights, is an entirely new species of discovery, and suited to the paradoxical genius of Mr. Burke." Thomas Paine, commenting on an attack on the French Revolution by a member of the British Parliament.

It would be reassuring if I could say the issues facing us today were less weighty than in the past...