What Ever Happened to Reasonable Debate?

Conservative blogger/journalist Michelle Malkin noticed this John Leo column in Jewish World Review about the hyperbolic rhetoric we too often see these days.

Leo concludes with:

We have reached the point where much political debate consists of insults and name-calling, every attack is likely to be called a "lynching," and tired expressions such as "institutional terrorism," "institutional racism," and "intellectual McCarthyism" are supposed to be taken as real arguments. Political polarization is an obvious cause.

But so is the democratization of the media, particularly the arrival of the Internet and big-time talk radio, which allow all of us to say whatever we like, no matter how crude.

The exaggerations and vitriol we see coming from so many on the partisan wings (particularly from the blogs) does little to further debate. Those that disagree with each other should spend less time firing up their bases and more time engaged in honest debate.

If there is one thing that defines moderates, it’s their willingness to be sensible, to persuade and to be persuaded not by rhetoric or partisanship but by truth and reason. That's the true value of centrism.