Peace and Civility (or a lack thereof)

Nick Gillespie, editor of Reason magazine (one of my favourite publications), was on the O'Reilly Factor this week debating Senator Lamar Alexander on the proposed bill that would "ban" singing the national anthem in Spanish. I won't get into why it's a stupid piece of legislation right now, but here's what saddens me the most: the response Nick received from O'Reilly viewers, which was absolutely vicious, ignorant, racist, and completely lacking in thought. It's this kind of shit that really makes me long for the more tame politics in Canada, where it seems like most people can be civil to each other. I know there are many, many exceptions - but I just can't imagine reading stuff like this north of the border.

Incidentally, how is it possible that Nick's opinions are lambasted as being "communist" so frequently, when the it's the other side that is displaying the totalitarian mentality? "Commie" has to be one of the most misunderstood put-downs in the modern era.

UPDATE: If those comments depressed you, like they did me, then you might want to check out the comment thread at Hit & Run on the subject, where some sane people are able to look at it with a sense of humour. It made me feel better.