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Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Is Recovering, But Civil Discourse Hasn't

National Public Radio

At NPR.org, Linton Weeks writes:

When a gunman opened fire on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and others at a shopping center near Tucson exactly a year ago — killing six people and injuring Giffords and many others — some people were quick to blame the episode on the overheated political climate...

Writing in the Libertarian magazine Reason, David Harsanyi once asked, "Have we transformed into so brittle a citizenry that we are unable to handle a raucous debate over the future of the country? If things were quiet, subdued and 'civil' in America today ... it only would be proof that democracy isn't working."

And the late Christopher Hitchens reportedly said that civility is overrated.

Reason's full coverage of the Giffords shooting here and Matt Welch on political rhetoric here.

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