Bring Back Dueling

[Draggingtree]

The Federalist :

Bring Back Dueling!

Dueling would provide a much-needed corrective to our increasingly vulgar and reckless politics.

By David Harsanyi FEBRUARY 19, 2016

 

In a recent debate, Donald Trump accused fellow candidate Ted Cruz of being “the single biggest liar” in the Republican race. He didn’t stop there, punctuating the insult by adding that the Texas senator was “probably worse than Jeb Bush.” This ugly dig — leveled by a billionaire in front of tens of millions of television viewers — was nothing less than character assassination.

 

These days, though, there’s really no way to fight back against attacks on your honor. You can whine about them, or you can respond with your jabs, but little else. (And Cruz is no amateur on either count.) We’ve spent centuries tempering our Darwinian instinct to swing our clubs at the heads of men who threaten or insult us. This has, in the aggregate, served society quite well. And yet, I can’t help but wonder if the lack of consequence associated with our words and deeds has fed another kind of detrimental vulgarism.

[SrWoodchuck]

@Draggingtree!

 

Bowie knives & baseball bats? I could dig it. Just to "first blood," though. Save the mortal strikes for the enemies of the Republic.