Putting aside for a moment the issue of whether the Arizona shootings were politically motivated or not, we do have a great opportunity to discuss the state of political rhetoric. I thought this NewsHour piece did an excellent job of doing just that.
I think that DU, it's administrators and members do a good job of striving for civil discourse and can be looked to as a good example of how to do this right.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june11/rhetoric_01-10.htmlSUMMARY
The tragic shooting in Tucson, Ariz., has revived the debate on the power of words and the state of political rhetoric. Jim Lehrer gets the views of columnists Mark Shields and David Brooks as well as Professors Beverly Gage of Yale and Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the University of Pennsylvania.