This is not (or rather, no longer) a political blog. But what appears in the comboxes on Jim Antle’s AmSpec story about pro-life Democrats and the health care compromise is not about politics at all. It’s about pathology, the decline in public morals, and the challenge to civil society and civil discourse in this toxic environment. Reading this stuff, it’s hard to believe that we’re talking not about war or economic collapse, but about … health care policy. Look:

imsteph| 3.22.10 @ 8:07AM
And [Bart Stupak] thought he was recieving calls before the vote? Buddy-really? Sold your soul and America for thirty peices of silver–oops my bad-that was the other Judas-two airports (by most accounts) in a state that no one wants to go to?
There is no such thing as a prolife dem-they are pro death everything…Margaret Sanger (the embodiment of evil) is their hero who wanted to kill anything that didn’t look, act, and think like her. Just like the entire party now. They were infested with communism, hate, and lies about 100 years ago and carry that ugly banner of puss filled sores bursting with stench and death…..like they have something to actually offer.
Lullaby’s, Legends and Lies| 3.22.10 @ 7:04AM
He didn’t have a soul to sell in the first place, he eats dead babies for nourishment, as do most of the Democrats (Commies) down there in Washington do. Unbeknownst to most Americans, this is the “real” secret, as to how the Democrats gain their “Super Powers”, which is the ability to look straight at the American People and lie to their faces, without any fear of repercussions-eating dead babies!! Supposedly, if you don’t have a soul, they taste just like Chicken!! And if they’re thrown under a bus? Just as well, the more tenderized they become!! Who needs a soul, when you can have Baby Tenders instead?
Robbins Mitchell| 3.22.10 @ 7:08AM
Now I understand why Bart Jr killed himself some years ago…he couldn’t live with the disgrace when he suddenly realized what his father really was.

Rep. Stupak’s 17 year old son killed himself in 2000; his family has expressed concern that there might be a link between psychosis and the fact that the boy was taking Accutane, which has been linked to suicide. But even a child’s suicide is not off limits for some people.
If you comment on this thread, please don’t bring up examples of, “but they do it too!” Of course they do. So what? It’s still evil. What kind of country are we turning into when people allow this kind of rage to infect their mind and their words? At the Phillip Blond panel on Friday, I said to the audience that I didn’t think it would be possible for a creative message like Phillip’s reform conservatism to be heard in this current media environment. I didn’t say “to be adopted”; I said simply to be heard. These days, the worst really are filled with passionate intensity. Where is all this going?
I am going to police this thread to keep it from turning into a political back and forth. I would like commenters to focus on the threat to civil society from this kind of unhinged rhetoric — rhetoric that, let’s be fair, we heard a lot on the Left during the Bush presidency. At some point though — and I would say that point is now — responsible figures have got to stand up and shout it back down, instead of ride this rage to political success. Do we have anybody on the left or the right who is willing to face down the rage addicts on their own side? Or is the temptation to play to the mob for votes and power too great?
UPDATE: A conservative friend tells me that while she’s not sure what she thinks of the health care bill that passed, seeing the quality of the opposition — she referenced the Tea Partiers who hurled racist epithets at black Democrats going in to vote, and those who reportedly yelled anti-gay slurs at Barney Frank over the weekend — she’s glad they lost. FWIW.
UPDATE.2: Limbaugh today:

They must, my friends, be hounded out of office. Every single Democrat who voted for this needs to know, safe district or not, that they are going to be exposed and hassled and chased from office. We now have leftist radicals in charge of your health care decisions rather than doctors. I got up today and I said, “We’re hanging by a thread,” …

This country, which survived the Civil War, the Great Depression and World War II, is “hanging by a thread.” And the people who have driven us to destruction, says the radio talker, must be “hassled and chased from office.” I don’t care if you’re a liberal, a conservative, or a stalwart of the Monster Raving Loony Party, this kind of demagoguery is disgusting — and is precisely the thing that’s going to keep alienating the middle. I do not want people who talk this way having influence over public life.