Why do the Tea-Partiers refuse to follow the proper, genteel rules of debate?

S

Scitech101

New member
They just shout out of turn, do not cite facts, and do not show genteel respect for their opponents. When you are arguing with a politician, you should use terms like "sir" and be polite disagree. You should not yell at them. I watched the House debate over healthcare on C-SPAN. They do not usually show respect for their opponents, and that makes me upset. However, they do cite facts, and they do abide by a formal set of rules. (usually) The same cannot be said for the Tea Partiers. They just yell and shout and become emotional.

The same goes for a lot (not all, but a lot) of protestors, liberal or conservative. The Tea Partiers just happen to be the current largest example.
The G20 protestors made me SICK. It is embarassing when my fellow liberals become illogical and resort to civil disobedience (I hate to say this, but I probably would have had a hard time swallowing the Civil Rights Movement.)
 
Well, you sometimes have to do that when politicians are lying through their teeth, calling Tea-Party protesters racists and nazis and generally ignoring their real concerns.

Politicians only deserve the respect they earn. And they only earn respect by acting respectful to the people they were elected to SERVE.

Whey they lie to and insult their constituents, they deserve to be treated like crooks.
 
All your politicians don't respect you, they think your all a bunch of idiots who don't know how to run your own lives. So they're going to run it for you! And that includes me. So why should I respect them? Give me a reason.
 
Some of the contributors to this tone in addressing their respected colleagues and the public was displayed by Sen, John McCain during the 2008 presidential debates. He walked over to Sen. Obama, gestured at him and made a vocal reference to "this one". How quickly some forget even recent history.

As the saying goes "the fish rots from the head down." When a respected long term Senator can refer to a colleague as "this one" without a public outcry for an apology, what can you expect from any segment of the population.
 
It would have been better to refer to protestors in general in the main question, then go into the specific example of the Tea Partiers in the detailed portion. This would prevent the knee-jerk reactions you are surely to get from both sides.

Protestors generally are just common people who are excited and fired up. They aren't familiar with proper edicate in a formal debate and want to treat it as a rally.

Some people show up at debates with the express purpose of disrupting things.

But I don't think the yelling and such is typical. Could you tell me more about the debate you were watching? Who were the politicians there? Where was it held? If it was at a town meeting, I don't think it is expected that everyone be so polite as to say "sir" and "pardon me but I think your answer did not accurately address the points in my question."

At the Q and A the president had with the Republicans, Obama "answered" one persons question about the freeze on discretionary spending by talking about how the increases in NON- discretionary spending were not his fault. The asker was quiet and respectful until Obama was finished. Then he said "That is NON- discretionary spending. I was asking about the increases in discretionary spending." At a town hall meeting, the asker would have interrupted the politician by saying "I did not ask about non- discretionary spending. I asked about discretionary spending."
 
"When you are arguing with a politician, you should use terms like "sir" and be polite disagree. You should not yell at them"

Says who? I agree with being polite and never mean but seriously, who the heck made official rules that NEED to be followed when engaging in debate? Don't give me some "guidelines" -- who made truly official rules that NEED to be followed?
 
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