You know who's an asshole? South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson, that's who's an asshole. That said, I couldn't agree more with Thers over at Whiskey Fire when he writes a post entitled:
I Think You're an Asshole, And I Will Defend to the Death Your Right to Act Like an Asshole, But You're Still an Asshole, Asshole
He continues:
There is nothing so deeply American as calling the President of the United States of America a liar.
Sometimes, indeed, the President of the United States tells lies. I believe history will support me on this. And when this happens, Americans should say "you're a liar, Mr. President," even if to do so is Shocking.
For instance, I honestly do not think anyone from the Bush administration should be able to speak in public without being pelted with garbage, because I quite sincerely believe that they all told lies that ended up killing lots of people. Because, you know, they did.
Truth is a higher value than civility.
The fact of the matter is, truth and civility aren't exclusive terms. And, in a perfect world, civility and truth would coincide a hell of a lot more than they would right now. The thing is, civility doesn't--or shouldn't--mean capitulation or silence. We've let the Village (to us Digby's terms) define civility as adherence to some false middle--as taking the Responsible view, which lies somewhere between Glenn Beck and whatever centrist Democrat they have on Fox.
But civility, in its original sense, was "of or proper to a citizen," which would imply that true civility has more to do with telling the truth than not being shrill.
Yes, Rep. Wilson shouted at the president, but that is rude, not uncivil. What makes Wilson an asshole isn't that he shouted, it's that he lied. Obama didn't lie (at least about his bill covering undocumented immigrants--though it should, but that's another matter).
My point is this: civility is truth telling, and we shouldn't let the fact that Wilson's an asshole obscure that.
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