Sally Kohn and Incivility

I frankly don't think that conservatives have been as bad on civility as progressives in recent years, but I do fully agree that both sides have been pretty awful. I would take exception with some of this list, though.

First, it's incivil to spell Herman Cain's name as "Hermann," because that implies he's a Nazi. OK, it could just be an error.

But that brings me to Donald Trump, whose offense against civility is that he said President Obama was "born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia." I believe Trump believes that, and that Trump is just in error, about the Kenya part. It's not like I think Trump is too smart to be so clearly wrong. And Obama was, in part, raised in Indonesia, right? We have school records, pictures (kinda like we have birth records, newspaper clippings that show he was born in Hawaii). Nothing wrong with growing up in Indonesia, last I checked, but I don't see how it's necessarily uncivil to state a fact.

I agree most of the stuff on there is pretty uncivil, though. Then again, I've claimed that Obama hates the rule of law. I think that's true, and can back it up -- my point being that he has no problems bending and ignoring any law that he thinks would serve his purposes, such as ignoring due process because it gets in the way of what he thinks is the Greater Good -- but I wonder what Sally Kohn would say about that.

Anyway, I don't want to get hung up on left vs. right here. The point is that we should be civil, but just because I am making a strong criticism that sounds pretty bad doesn't mean I am being uncivil. I know of no other good way to say that Obama hates the rule of law than to say that he hates the rule of law. And if you really believe Obama wasn't born in the U.S., there's no other way to say it than to ... say it.

Of course, in the latter case, you shouldn't believe it in the first place. Come on, people. The evidence is really clear. Donald, pull your head out, already.