When the time to comment on civility and modern political discourse presents itself, it can become particularly tempting for one to focus attention on those the commentator most disagrees with and to use said opportunity to make round-about, over-generalized statements about ideological opponents. Christine Rousselle succumbed to this unfortunate temptation when she focused the attention of her last post exclusively on a Facebook account that serves as a parody of Governor LePage.

Rousselle’s post was originally published elsewhere online, where it was originally entitled “Leftist ‘Civility’ Empowers Morons” (a title I imagine to have been changed to fit the civility-oriented theme of this blog). In it, she suggests that after Rep. Gabby Giffords was shot, notorious Leftist Sen. John Kerry advocated for a return of civility in political discourse. However, since there exists a Facebook profile that parodies Maine’s notoriously bombastic Republican governor, and because this prank was clearly perpetrated by a Leftist, the hypocritical Left need to try being civil for a change before they are allowed to call on others to do so. Follow?

She claims to be ‘horrified’ that someone would do such a thing to poorGovernor Paul “Civility” LePage (I hope for the sake of Rousselle’s psychological well being, she has never read The Onion), and since she can’t find a parody profile for Gov. Baldacci, it can be deduced that conservatives have more constructive things to do than to “waste time on Facebook with petty attacks on those they disagree with.”

Rousselle researched this phenomenon by way of searching for a profile for Gov. Baldacci on Facebook, but unfortunately the breadth of this study did not bring to her attention the time that conservative activist James O’Keefe rose to fame by way of lying to ACORN about who he was in a failed attempt to ensnare them, and then distorting his findings to tell a lie so monumental and twisted, it brought the organization to its knees. How do we know this? O’Keefe avoided prosecution for his actions by granting the California Attorney General’s Office access to the full, unedited video tapes. The AG’s report found what other states and municipalities had already concluded, and what the Government Accountability Office has concluded since: O’Keefe is a liar.

Speaking of liars, O’Keefe’s videos were leaked on one of Andrew Breitbart’s websites. In fact, they were released on the same website on which Breitbart himself released a video edited in a way to make Georgia State Director of Rural Development for the US Department of Agriculture Shirley Sharrod, someone whose life has been devoted to civil rights work, appear to be a racist. When confronted with this, after she lost her job over the incident, Breitbart told a series of lies in order to make himself right. When taking this into consideration, what Christopher Hitchens said of Jerry Falwell when the reverend died applies to the way now feel about Breitbart’s passing: “If he had been given an enema, he could have been buried in a matchbox.”

At this point, is it even necessary to mention that the toppling of Rep. Anthony Weiner, who no doubt did something that is very stupid for an elected official to do, relied on the fabrication of fake Twitter accounts designed to ensnare him?

In the past, Rousselle has said that she would like to be the next Ann Coulter, a celebrity who is more ardently devoted to political performance art than she is critical analysis. Rousselle presents herself in a way that leads the reader to believe she enjoys the attention that comes with demagoguery more than she does navigating reality. Yesterday her Twitter feed included a Tweet from someone who suggested “If liberals don’t hate you, you’re not doing it right!” to which another person replied, “Exactly. If you haven’t irked leftists, you haven’t done your job.” This sentiment would explain the aforementioned oversights regarding her conclusions. If “irking leftists” is a fundamental component of your job, why let worrying about things like “very recent history” and “doing research” get in the way of making an ill-conceived, sensational political points?

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