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Civility isn't an attribute when confronted with evil! Soros and the masters of the Democrat party absolutely intend to destroy this nation. They admit it. It scares me that people think that Joe Biden is a blundering old fool with failed policies. This nation will not survive unless it wakes up. It is civility that is allowing them to succeed!

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Tom: Your good question appears to be "How should we respond to people who fail the tests listed above (honesty, competence, etc.)?" This is difficult, especially when they hold positions of authority (per your example).

If we are people who truly believe in Judeo-Christian values, then we should look to the Bible to answer this — as bad people have been around since the beginning...

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This is obviously not the most profound critical thought but, whether one is religious or not, if everyone just followed the 10 commandments the world would truly be Heaven on Earth and have more Civility by default!

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Mark: Yes, that would indeed work. However, instead of having Judeo-Christian standards, an unfortunate swich has been made to Relativism for many today.

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Without Honesty and Integrity it won't work. Deception destroys!

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Barbara: Yes, and that is what we are dealing with.

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John...you nailed the issue by making "honesty" #1. As we listen to or read popular media (cable, network, social media, papers, etc.), many of us know that what is being communicated as simply dishonest...and, the purveyor generally knows they are being dishonest...or, they are totally brain dead.

If media in general would just take an oath to be honest in reporting, things would be way better. But, of course, that's not media's role any longer. So, my advice is when you hear/see dishonesty either push back hard or ignore it.

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Don: Indeed we do need to communicate that we've had enough. It would help if there were civil penalties for dishonesty when representatvies are communicating with their constituents. The coffers would fill up so quickly that we could probably lower tax rates!

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One of your best, John. Very well said! Thanks.

Now, the age-old question. How do we educate the public, especially those who take the time and energy to be part of the electorate who actually choose society's leaders? Today, we clearly have too many leaders who's underlying character conflicts with your concept of honesty and civility. As you not so subtly point out, such ill-fitting character is blatantly obvious (even prevalent) in the highest ranks of our current leadership. What makes that all so much more difficult to swallow, is that we do indeed have some very good people to choose from, IF ONLY the public could somehow identify for themselves who those people are.

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Russ: TY for the effusive support. In this case I'm mostly spelling out the obvious.... One solution is to fopcus on legislators' policies, rather than their personities.

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Once again you are on the mark with this well thought-out expose'. I have to employ civility all the time when in conversation with my brother-in-law who is a professed atheist and a college graduate.

Fortunately he is civil towards me (not a college graduate) and does recognize that our society is based off Judean-Christian values, morals and principles.

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Tom: Good that you are being considerate of your brother-in-law.

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This is a valuable contribution to the growing field of political civility (I co-chair the

Stubblefield Institute for Civil Political Communications at WV's Shepherd University). "It's complicated" is probably the best answer, but the lack of honesty is a contributing factor. The failure of critical thinking and relationship skills, replaced by insidious forms of indoctrination, from victimhood to wokeness, are also major contributors.

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Kelly: Glad to hear that there are competent people giving this matter serious consideration. Hopefully my 2¢ from the hinterlands may be at least of some small value... FYI, I was not aware of your organization. When I looked it up it seems to be a worthy effort. For readers, see here <https://stubblefieldinstitute.org>.

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