Why be Civil to Progressives Taking Away my Rights?

I’ve brought this up before—and I’ll probably bring it up again, but I’ve heard more discussion of it lately, so….

I hear this call for civility in politics, and although many of these calls come from leftist politicians who are about as hypocritical as they come, and I think Maxine Waters takes the hypocrite cake in this arena. The point is, why is civility so important anyway? It seems the left only wants civility when they’re the targets because of their oppressive actions.

If someone wants to tax me 2% instead of 1%, we have a different point of view. If someone wants the prison in my town, but I’m opposed, that’s a legitimate difference of opinion. Even if someone supported the invasion of Iraq, and I did not, that’s still within the political disagreement realm.

However, it’s dramatically different when someone wants to confiscate my property for redistribution and to alienate my unalienable rights. How can I look a these people, which now includes not only my U.S. Representative and both my Senators, but my President too?

When progressives attempt to change my country fundamentally, and show no apparent respect for our U.S. Constitution or American traditions, how can I look at these people as simply people on the other side of the political aisle?

Here’s my political litmus test: If conservative-libertarians, Tea Party-types get their political way, progressives still get to pursue their individual happiness unmolested. However, if progressives get their way, I have no right to my property, which is confiscated at ever-increasing rates and redistributed, and for the first time in American history my federal government mandates that I buy a product, health insurance, I may not want, and may not even need (in the case of the wealthy). And if I fail to purchase the government fines me, and if I fail to pay the fine I suppose the government would garnish my wages, or I’d end up in jail.

When our Founders acknowledged an individual’s God-given right to pursue happiness, I believe they intended the pursuit to be on our own individual terms, not that of the government.