Lack of Civility in Public Discourse

Rep. Joe Wilson (R) S. C. behaved with the decorum of a child when he screamed "you lie" at the president while the president addressed Congress about health care. Congress has formally voted to denounce Wilson's behavior, but the vote was anything but unanimous, only 240-179. Only seven Republicans voted for the resolution. This outburst was a huge disrespect to the office of the presidency, and regardless of political party, should be denounced in the spirit of preserving some sense of decorum in government.

This incident is a culmination of all the impetuous and hysterical rhetoric from the right being excepted as an appropriate way for people to engage in debates about national issues. Elected officials from both sides of the aisle should be held to a higher standard then, say, belligerent musicians at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Wilson has actually turned into a right-wing hero as a result of his publicly admonishing the president. He has raised over a million dollars in donations. Donations he directly asked for in a web video he dispersed on Twitter, saying that he needed the money to help ward of attacks from political opponents.

Most of the Wilson's supporters are clinging to the idea that the outrage over his behavior is because he called the president a liar. It's not

It is about him flying off the handle in the middle of the president's speech. This is not a debate about Wilson's right to publicly disagree with the president. It's about the fact that we shouldn't have to remind politicians to behave themselves while in the process of trying to tackle complex national problems.

If a student jumped up in the middle of class and yelled at a professor because they disagreed with the professor said, they would be reprimanded, not for disagreeing, but for rudely interrupting. Bottom line, if he had waited until after the speech and tweeted to his hearts content about how the president was lying he wouldn't be getting a formal reprimand from Congress.

Many public figures have lost their cool in public this week, but no one has rushed to defend Serena Williams for going crazy at a tennis match. There has been no uprising of Taylor Swift critics rushing to defend Kanye West's outburst at the VMAs.

Wilson shouldn't be getting support for being a jackass to the President, even from people who disagree with Obama's health care plan. Furthermore, West at the very least had an excuses, however inappropriate, for his inability to behave in public. So far there haven't been any videos of Wilson drinking Hennessy out of the bottle and posing for the paparazzi before the speech.

Voters should make sure that it is clear that these rude, uncontrolled, unresearched attacks are not part of what we want our government to be spending time on. There is a level of respect that is required in order to debate heated political issues effectively.