The XX Factor: Slate women blog about politics, etc...

What's the Opposite of Civility?

Ann, a question triggered by your great post this morning: What is the opposite of hope and civility? Is it honesty and candor about the toughness of this race, as you suggest? Is it being “mean and irrational” as Gail Collins argues? Or is it specificity and detail as Joan Walsh implies? From the outset, Obama critics have always conflated his tone with his politics—arguing that all this optimism and coalition-fostering was either empty rhetoric that masked a lack of substance, or that his only end game is to repair politics as it is practiced.

I think that mistake sometimes leads commentators to confuse Clinton’s substance with Obama’s style. When she wins on substance, the problem must be his style. And it leads them to conclude that he has to drop all the sunny optimism and civility in order to be substantial or rigorous or detailed or honest. Substance, rigor, detail, and honesty are not the opposite of civility. Obama can crank up the former without sacrificing the latter. Or at least he can try before hauling out the chainsaw and the flaming torches.