Really. They should know better.

The candidates running for office, and their supporters, have thrown away all restraint and call their opponents any name in the book, including buffoons, liars and traitors. They hang their charges upon the thinnest possible thread of evidence (if any) and they ram them home with all the finesse of a sledgehammer.

They should be ashamed of themselves. But you know what? They are not. They are proud of their excesses. They want 1) to steal votes from the other guy or 2) to make supporters (of that other fellow) so sick of politics they stay home and refrain from voting.

Pure democracy? Or pure demagoguery?

We are willing to accept that anyone aspiring to hold public office, especially at the exalted levels of the White House and the U.S. Senate, must want to serve the public. Because the work, for those elected, is heavy. It is time consuming and aging. It is stressful. It can be rewarding.

Those aspiring to hold office also must grow an exc...