Politics has always been a nasty business. Our times are no different from all others in that regard. However, what we see on threads like this is not about politics. It's about something dark in the human spirit; something that has always been in us, but which civilization supposedly tames in us.
Civilization, civil, civic, civics, civility -- they all have the same linguistic root, which is from the Latin "civilis:" of or affecting fellow citizens. We supposedly live in a highly civilized time, and yet civility seems to be crumbling all around us, civics are no longer taught in our schools, and our mass communications media are used to demean and degrade our fellow citizens even as they are dying.
As I typed that, I realized you might say that.
At the age of 60, I've seen the bar lowered in terms of what is acceptable behavior.
Growing up, I never read or heard ex-presidents publicly denouncing the CIC or foreign policy in time of war.
I never heard about presidents boinking actresses and pin-up girls because the press kept it quiet...at least if it was a democrat. ;^)
Politics seems almost pornographic in nature to this senior citizen.