"Political Correctness" As Civility

Keith Olbermann's blog (you can check it out here) is usually worth reading. Since the election he has been focusing on voting irregularities, a topic most of the MSM has ignored. But today I particularly appreciated his offhand remark about the peevishness of the Republican habit of referring to the "Democrat [rather than Democratic] Party." This is one of those petty annoyances that most commentators long ago stopped mentioning, but I must say it still irks me.

I connect this issue to the broader theme of "political correctness" in the following way. Many of the complaints uttered by liberals concerning political speech have to do with the use of disrespectful nomenclature by our opponents on the right. When Native Americans object to sports teams using names like Redskins or Braves, or when women object to Rush Limbaugh's mockery of "feminazis," their basic message is: You're talking about us, and we don't like the language you're choosing.

Now, I was raised to believe that all people deserve to be treated with minimal standards of politeness. That includes calling them what they prefer to be called. If my friend Richard wants me to call him Rich rather than Dick, I do so. In the same way, I wouldn't refer to a Black acquaintance using the N word because I know darn well it's offensive, just like calling a Canadian a Canuck or an Italian a Wop.

So in essence, I consider "political correctness" (to the extent it exists at all) a form of elemental courtesy. Civility, you might say. Which makes it more than ironic that members of the so-called conservative movement, who love to deplore the decay of civility in society when it suits their agenda, continually attack "political correctness" as a tyrannical (yet wimpish) restriction on their freedom of speech. And the same people insist on using the phrase "Democrat Party," not despite its offensiveness but precisely because they know their opponents perceive it as a thumb in the eye.

It's worth remembering this next time a Southerner says (like some of the posters on the very interesting recent Daily Kos thread concerning red state/blue state values), "We can't bring ourselves to vote for a Northeastern Democrat because you Yankees just don't have good manners like we do. . . "