George Tiller was a Kansas doctor who was the medical director of Women\u2019s Healthcare Services in Wichita. Tiller\u2019s medical practice was one of only three in the nation that performed late-term abortions, which were done in the instance of severe or fatal birth defects or for the health of the mother. Dr. Tiller was for all intents and purposes a relatively normal Kansas man, he was married, he had four children, and he was active in his church. Yet his career was marked by abnormality as he was targeted by anti-choice groups, his practice was fire bombed, he received death threats at his home, and he was even shot five times by a woman who had been harassing Tiller for 5 years. It might\u2019ve been bad enough if Tiller just faced hostility at home, but Tiller was the subject of 28 separate segments of disgraced former Fox host Bill O\u2019Reilly\u2019s show The O\u2019Reilly Factor<\/em>. On that program, which had a national audience in the millions, Dr. Tiller was \u201cTiller the Baby Killer\u201d and \u201ca savage on the loose, killing babies willy-nilly\u201d. In 2009 Dr. George Tiller was murdered, shot in the head, during worship services at his church. Where were his calls for civility?<\/p>\n

Gabrielle Giffords was a US congresswoman representing Arizona\u2019s 8th district. Giffords represented a district that had been a frequent target of Republicans, but her moderate image prevented them from taking her seat even in the Tea Party wave of 2010. Giffords supported stem-cell research, raising the minimum wage, and the Affordable Care Act, which drew the ire of conservatives in spite of her support of stronger immigration laws. Failed governor and GOP vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin\u2019s Super Pac had a website with a map of competitive congressional districts and Gifford\u2019s district as well as others were depicted in the middle of a gun\u2019s cross-hairs. Giffords complained about the imagery because as she saw it \u201cthere are consequences to that action\u201d. In 2011 Giffords was shot during a meet-and-greet with her constituents, she survived but 6 people did not, including a 9-year-old girl named Christina-Taylor Green. Where were their calls for civility?<\/p>\n

Igor Soldo and Alyn Beck were police officers in Las Vegas. Soldo was a dedicated public servant who drove from Nebraska to Las Vegas to interview for his job. He was a husband, and he was a father of a baby boy. Beck was a senior patrol officer who had served since 2001 and was also a husband and father. In 2014, conservative media intensely covered the Bundy standoff and lauded the ranchers and their supporters as something like folk heroes. Bundy of course was a tax evading racist who didn\u2019t recognize the legitimacy of the Federal Government and his supporters aimed their rifles at police officers. These facts were not relevant to the Limbaughs and Hannitys who were focused only on framing yet another argument about a how America was drifting into Marxism under President Obama. There was a couple present at the Bundy standoff who happened to live in Las Vegas and also apparently felt emboldened by their popular support among some conservatives for standing up to the federal government. They recorded videos asking for ammunitions and detailing their hatred of government but more specifically, President Obama\u2019s government. In July of 2014, Igor Soldo and Alyn Beck were murdered by that extremist couple and their bodies were draped with the Gadsden flag and a swastika. Where were their calls for civility?<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have to talk about Donald Trump\u2019s call for protesters to be beaten up on the campaign trail. We don\u2019t have to talk about that time Donald Trump implied that Hillary Clinton should be shot by \u201csecond amendment people\u201d. We don\u2019t have to talk about Donald Trump\u2019s embrace of nicknames, awful conspiracy theorists, and the almost propaganda like assistance he\u2019s received from Fox News. Because Donald Trump isn\u2019t the cause of our \u201clack of civility\u201d and conservatives don\u2019t really care about civility. If they did, we\u2019d have heard about it before now.<\/p>\n

Conservatives don\u2019t like to be inconvenienced when they go out to eat, they don\u2019t like being shamed by their friends for supporting a morally bankrupt administration, and they don\u2019t like being held accountable. They don\u2019t care about the political discourse which was debased long before Trump descended down his golden escalator and called Mexicans rapists. Their argument for civility isn\u2019t about our democracy or protecting institutions, it\u2019s about making the internment of children or the rollback of civil rights a matter of \u201cdebate\u201d instead of \u201cright and wrong\u201d. It\u2019s about accepting objectively terrible things and legitimizing hateful ideologies because \u201cwe\u2019ve got to listen to all sides\u201d.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re going to survive as a country, we can\u2019t keep allowing ourselves to be gaslighted into thinking that our protests to protect democracy are the reasons it\u2019s being degraded. The idea that saying the \u201cF word\u201d, engaging members of OUR GOVERNMENT in public, or restaurants not being comfortable playing host to people complicit in the internment of children is equivalent to actual violence is frankly ridiculous. So, with all due respect, Fuck your civility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Tiller was a Kansas doctor who was the medical director of Women\u2019s Healthcare Services in Wichita. Tiller\u2019s medical practice was one of only<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":38729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[767,16,1929,202],"tags":[2825,2459,3240],"yoast_head":"\n