Megan is better than you

Of online debate and hidden agendas:

I'm profoundly tired of being unable to say anything about the candidates without having it turn into a shouting match. I post a mildly amusing video about John McCain, and it immediately degenerates into a shouting match over whether he's, like, the worst person ever, or the victim of a liberal media conspiracy. No one seems to be able to be able to hold two different thoughts in their heads at once:

1. The houses thing is a silly issue that shouldn't make any difference in peoples' willingness to vote for McCain
2. The houses thing is funny, especially when set to Feist.

It's almost as if people care about this election thing. Stupid proles, you're supposed to maintain an ironic detachment. You see, the DC Village is hitting its hipster phase, and Megan just wants the rest of us to be cool, too.

Both Obama and McCain supporters seem convinced that my every utterance on the topic is part of my not-so-hidden agenda to undermine their candidate. I have no hidden agenda. My agenda is out-front and open; I'll probably vote for Obama, but not with any expectation that I'll like the result very much. I am not excited about this election. I do not believe that my vote is going to immanentize the eschaton. I do not think that I am engaged in a titanic battle, in which the forces of good must beat back the cosmic evil that threatens to engulf us all. I think I'm deciding which of two politicians to hand a lot of power I don't want either of them to have.

I think you're giving yourself too much credit. I do not think you're particularly intelligent. I think Megan misunderstands that the point is not MEGAN MCARDLE, but that there's an important election underway which people care deeply about the outcome of on both sides. I do not think this is necessarily a bad thing, having come of age in the previous decade when political cynicism ruled the roost. I think Megan's studied disinterest is bullshit, and her tepid support for Obama is dishonest and primarily part of her cover for remaining in the conservative closet.

It should be possible to debate the issues in this election at a level above "My guy's awesome and your guy is a big fat doody-head". But it doesn't seem to be. I find this profoundly depressing.

Says the woman who posted a "funny" video about an issue she apparently feels is trivial, thus raising the level of dialogue.
This kind of concern trolling is standard issue right wing bullshit. Megan just needs some pearls to clutch at to become Peggy Noonan, or a willingness to blame it all on the left to become Malkin or Amy Alkon. After all, we don't respond calmly and civilly to sociopaths who want America to enter a state of Total, Permanent War, so it's our fault Megan is depressed. If we were just nice like she is we'd remember that it doesn't matter how abhorrent someone's ideas are, if you aren't nice to them, you lose the debate.
N so what if the right both passive aggressively and directly makes use of eliminationist rhetoric. If you can't look past genocidal warmongering, assaults on your patriotism, and barely concealed personal threats to deal with someone politely, you're just a dirty fucking hippie. Manners before murder, folks. Remember this.