Impolite Pols May Face Doom

[Geee]

Politico:

Impolite pols may face doom

By ROGER SIMON

Listen up, you morons: The United States has gotten less civil.

“Two out of three Americans consider a general lack of civility to be a major problem for the nation, and 72 percent think that poor behavior has gotten worse in recent years,” according to a new study by Powell Tate/Weber Shandwick in partnership with KRC Research. (How did all of them get along? I wonder.)

And while incivility is a problem in virtually all walks of life, politicians may be particularly vulnerable: Some 83 percent of those polled said “people should not vote for candidates and politicians who are uncivil.”

So nobody is going to win come November, I guess.

I was given an advance look at the study, which polled 1,003 U.S. adults April 20-23. When asked how they would describe the “general tone and level of civility” in the areas below, the results were:

Government/politics ... 72 percent uncivil

Traffic on roads/highways ... 69 percent

American public ... 61 percent

Talk radio ... 59 percent

High schools ... 59 percent

Hollywood celebrities ... 56 percent

Professional sports ... 54 percent

Television ... 52 percent

Blogs ... 51 percent

CEOs ... 49 percent

News reporters/commentators ... 48 percent

Social networking sites ... 43 percent

Companies/places of employment ... 40 percent

College/university campuses ... 40 percent

Advertising ... 39 percent

Twitter ... 35 percent

Friends/relatives ... 17 percent

Places of worship ... 14 percent

We, as a people, pay a price for the jerks among us: Nearly half of all Americans say they are “tuning out” of government and politics, 46 percent are tuning out of opinion pieces and editorials in the media, and 38 percent are tuning out of news coverage and reporting.

Some 75 percent of Americans believe uncivil companies should be boycotted, and more than 56 percent have already done so based on their own personal experiences.

And hold onto your hats: “Seventy-one percent of Democrats view Republicans as uncivil, and 74 percent of Republicans view Democrats as uncivil.” Some 58 percent of independents rate Republicans as uncivil, and 50 percent rate Democrats as uncivil.