In Politics, Nothing is Beyond the Pale

Sometimes, the politics of politics is enough to make you sick to your stomach: the level of personal vitriol; the branding of one’s philosophical opponents as socialists, fascists or racists; the win-at-all-costs approach.

There’s Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska, saying that Democratic health care reform plans include “death panels” for senior citizens. There are Democrats, most notably former President Jimmy Carter, saying that racism is the root cause of much of the conservative opposition to President Barack Obama’s agenda. There are folks on both sides of any of the divisive issues in the public forum today calling into question the patriotism of anyone whe espouses a different belief than theirs.

Thursday afternoon, the National Republican Congressional Committee sent out one of its many e-mail blasts about Rep. Tom Perriello, the Democrat who represents the Fifth District in the House of Representatives.

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The release, which came under the signature of Regional Press Secretary Andy Sere, was about the announcement of state Sen. Robert Hurt, R-Chatham, announcing his plans to challenge Perriello in November 2010. Hurt’s entry into the race prompted many political experts to rate Democrat Perriello as one of the most endangered freshmen in next year’s congressional elections.

Perriello’s 35th birthday also is this week, and the NRCC though it would be oh-so cute to include a doctored image of the congressman as a little child sitting aghast before a cake gone up in flames. All in the effort to drive home the point “what a bad week for the congressman.”

It’s cute; some extreme partisans may even find it funny. But it’s pathetic, really, and indicative of the mean-spirited atmosphere that’s pervasive in American politics today.

It’s the same mean-spiritedness that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds has made a hallmark of his campaign against Republican Bob McDonnell. From the bogeyman of McDonnell’s 20-year-old grad school thesis to the outright lie that McDonnell is responsible for higher electricity bills many of us are paying to Appalachian Power Co., nothing is too outrageous, too beyond the pale, too disgusting to hurl at one’s opponents.

Politics has never been a job for the weak of heart. It’s tough because the stakes are so high. But tone and tenor of the national debate has been getting progressively meaner over the course of the past 15 years; it’s a cancer eating away at the heart of the Republic.

Someone somewhere has to say, “Enough is enough.”