It’s hard responding to uncivil people in a civilized manner.
But most of the time it’s not a debate, and it’s simply a matter of choice.
It’s funnny today listening to Rush say he’s not promoting incivility, in the same breath as he calls Senator Harry Reid “Dingy Harry” and regularly says Ted “The Swimmer” Kennedy.
He says I don’t get humor. But I do. I see these are funny, and I laugh. But it’s laughter at the expense of civility.
I would agree with you that it IS often a matter of choice to walk away or engage in uncivil discourse.
However, in our political arena (where walking away is tantamount to surrendering the issue to the other side) I think conservatives HAVE walked away from uncivil discourse, at least our President and other leaders in the Republican party have done so.
In my opinion, they have done this to the detriment of the issues. Rather than getting down and dirty, they have turned their backs and walked away. This has enabled the Left to set the stage and display the “truth” as they see fit.
It simply is much less interesting to the Media when someone says in a rational tone “We had valid and good reasons for acting the way we did at the time we did...” than to hear someone shout out in indignant tones “HE BETRAYED US! HE PLAYED ON OUR FEARS!”
To paraphrase Ann Coulter who is detested by many as being an expert in uncivil discourse, I would say that
“Civility is a one-way rachet for Liberals”