I’m getting more and more tired of politics, and I think that Dafydd ab Hugh explains why in his post, “Rules for Conservatives” (The title is a play on Rules for Radicals, by Saul Alinsky):

By the way, please don’t assume that I approve of tactics such as shouting down people at meetings; I think it’s reprehensible. I applaud opponents who can debate in a collegial atmosphere. However, I see the frustration of ordinary citizens whose congressmen treat them with condescension and disdain.

Discouraging tactics such as shouting down people you disagree with is like using poison gas in wartime. It only works if both sides refuse to use it. As long as the Left feels that it’s fair for it to disrupt meetings and shout down speakers, conservatives are going to do the same.

The one thing I won’t do is shed tears about the breakdown of civil debate: That died years ago. The truth is that the Right is finally learning how to play hardball.

I think Dafydd is right; the Left has absolutely no qualms about shouting down their opponents, disrupting meetings (witness the Code Pink assault on the Republican National Convention last year), or anything else, as long as the ultimate goal is to get their policies enacted (or, at the very least, to prevent the Right’s policies from being enacted). However, they feel it’s somehow wrong for the Right to do the same.

For my part, I think such tactics are generally deplorable as a whole, and the Left’s embrace of such tactics is one of the things I find most deplorable on that side of the political spectrum. I think it’s sad that the Right has to take up such tactics just to be fighting on “even ground”, and the fact that they (we?) have been driven to that point goes a long way toward draining the enthusiasm I had for discussing politics.