Sky, I do understand, and respect the point you are making although I often allow myself to indulge in the ridicule that you disdain.
That said, I wonder if you are not effectively ignoring a reality that you find unpleasant. I have seen conservative politicians ridiculing liberal values for years.... characterizing them as absurd, wrong headed, unpatriotic, stupid, elitist, etc etc etc... ad nauseum. As far as I am concerned, this incessant demeaning attack on liberalism has been extremely effective... to a point where mostly no one wants to admit that they are a liberal at all.
I will agree that ridicule can be unpleasant, distasteful, and rude. I do not agree that it is ineffective.
What I have found to be mostly ineffective is rational argument, though I would prefer it to be otherwise.
I think Jon Stewart is an example of a person who ridicules politicians... and does so VERY effectively. What he does is enormously more effective that any sort of rational discourse. He effectively shows that fundamental absurdity and hypocrisy of so many politicians.
Saturday night live has ridiculed many politicians... Carter, Ford, Nixon, and Palin Come to mind. In my view that ridicule changed public perception of those politicians. Like it or not, the ridicule had an enormous impact.
Bringing the matter to the present time, there is the question as to whether we should allow ourselves to express the contempt that we may feel? When a self-righteous politician will lecture us on family values... all the while he is having an affair.... this is not matter of rational debate. It is fairly a matter of contempt for a vile hypocrite. And I see no reason why that reality should be suppressed.
And when the architects of "deficits do not matter" .... now come calling with the proposition that they are scandalized by out of control deficits.... I am sorry to say that there is nothing in me but contempt for the self serving hypocritical swine.
