Responsible Disagreement

Penn Jillette talked in 2008 about why he wouldn't jump on hammering Sarah Palin. He mentions that he disagrees with her on everything, but he had two reasons for not trashing her. It was a combination of an unspoken sympathy and more importantly, civility. He chastises the left elite for not handling disagreement with her responsibly.

I disagree with Penn Jillette on an awful lot of things - probably 95 percent of things but not everything. But on his points on civility I applaud him.  I haven't seen much of him lately but I'm hopeful that he's stuck to his principles on being civil, not just with Palin, but in general.  I think he draws correctly draws  the distinction here between how Palin was being treated versus responsible disagreement that accompanied most criticisms of most politicians and it's important that responsible disagreement be recognized.