Are you an adult?

Are you an adult?

Do you call Hillary Clinton “Shillary” or “Crooked Hillary”?

Do you call Donald Trump “tRump”?

Did you call George Bush “shrub”?

Have you ever called Elizabeth Warren “Fauxcahontas”, or Mitt Romney “Mittens”?

Do you refer to President Obama as “Barack HUSSEIN Obama”? (Yes, it is his name, but with the emphasis on his middle name the implication is, of course, that he is a Muslim and/or Muslim sympathizer.)

If you do this or anything similar you are part of the problem…. the problem of petty hyper-partisan politics that has been infecting America for the past 20-ish years. Prior to that there was some humor in politics, and name calling wasn’t necessarily intended to be as deep and cutting as it is today. People, as in average voters and constituents, also weren’t as thin-skinned and didn’t take such personal offense then as they do today. You’d almost think it were an attack on them.

We can’t even treat people within our own political cliques with respect anymore. You may not be a “true-<whatever>” in the eyes of some conservatives and progressives if you’re not as uber-partisan as they are. Even being a moderate is now analogous to being a traitor.

Considering our new-found hyper-sensitivity, indicating that we’re no longer capable of acting as adults, maybe we should start on a road back to civility by not name calling anymore. We need to get back to a less absurdly partisan political atmosphere in this country, and a good place to start would be an adult-like civil discourse.

We… and I mean to say each and every one of us… need to set the tone and get back to a respectful discourse if we ever hope to move it further into adult-like politics where something meaningful might actually get done. As much as it pains us to do so, the woman’s name is Hillary Clinton, and the men’s names are Donald Trump, George Bush, and Barack Obama.

Small steps, and this is the first one. Can we do it?