Civility in the 21st century

I'm thinking there is no such concept. And it saddens me. Everyone seems so combative all the time...so ready to launch into an argument.

I must admit, there is an incident that has me thinking this way. And I'm just kind of depressed over it. Yesterday, I spent the day with some of my closest friends for a couple reasons. First, it was Michigan-Michigan State day, so that's always a good excuse to get together. The other reason is that one of my friends and his girlfriend bought a house last month and they were opening up their new house to host people. Very cool.

The first couple hours were very enjoyable. Until the conversation turned to politics. This particular group of friends of mine are all liberal. As most of you who know me are already aware, *I* am most decidedly NOT liberal. I'm libertarian but I definitely tend to agree with conservatives far more than liberals (I value fiscal and security issues far more than social issues).

Anyway...one of my friends (and he IS a true friend) starts ranting on about how "all" Republicans are stupid racist rednecks, blah blah blah. Then it became a description of anyone who won't vote for Obama.

And I tried to say, "Hey man...c'mon. You know EVERY McCain supporter is NOT that way...." To little avail. It got to the point that I simply gave up and sat in stony silence. Which is definitely NOT me. It wasn't until an hour later, when the political talk ended that I spoke to one of my other friends about my frustration.

I want desperately for the political season to end. Mainly because I'm tired of all the insults being lobbed back and forth. My friend can't truly believe what he said because I know that he doesn't believe those things about ME. Or a couple other of our friends. But something about this season brings out such oversimplified statements and misunderstanding.

I'm just frustrated with the friction.