No more big macs or chicken mcnuggets for me. Only fruit and yogurt parfaits from now on.
We are in a dangerous age where rational disagrements are countered with irrational emotional, personal attacks. Which is exactly the tactic Clinton and his followers use - attack the messenger, not the message.
The sixties and early seventies, the time which we baby boomers were coming into adulthood, saw the encouragement and legitimization of bahavior outside of accepted societal restraints. This behavioral change which became labeled as progressive, but which was in reality, simply the breaking down of the structures and restraints which are necessary for the long term functioning of a society.
A Dr. Spock raised generation whose hallmarks are permissiveness and disrespect, no longer works for the society as a whole, but for the concept of what feels good for me and how can I selfishly bring attention to myself. Those who found that attention could not be acheived within accepted practices of excellence became the counter-culture heros, helped along by the media glamorizing this behavior and raising the lowest common denominator to hero status.
The use of pejorative terms to squash debate is just the natural outcome of this culture. A culture that shouts me, me, me with learned unaccountability and disrespect.