as the polls were opening on the east coast, and i was sitting in my bed trying to avoid leaving my nice cosy comforter, i decided to make an effort to be nice. you’d think that this wouldn’t be necessary, but i think it is.

and, y’know, i was a total Gore girl, and i protested bush twice in d.c. — once on inauguration day, 20 jan 2001, and once again that april — so if i’m willing to concede my right to scream about squatters, you know i must be serious about just wanting people to start being nice again. so, without further ado:

This election day, I hereby pledge the following:

• That I will remain thoughtful and not dogmatic;
• That, if my preferred candidate wins, I will be gracious about it;
• That, if my preferred candidate loses, I will get over it;
• And that, if the election results split such that the winner of the popular vote is not the winner of the electoral vote, I will consider this a problem with and the fault of the system and not the fault of the president-elect.

I further pledge:

• That, if the election is contested and I disagree with the result, I will not denigrate the winner with names such as “pResident” or “President Select.” I will accept that the president-elect, when sworn into office, is the President of the United States;
• That, if the election is contested and I agree with the result, I will treat the losing candidate’s supporters with kindness and understanding of their position;
• That I will not call for impeachment just because I don’t like the guy and disagree with his politics;
• And that I may respectfully disagree only if I actually act respectful.

Finally, I pledge:

• That I will be considerate of all points of view. When participating in political discussion (either in real life or in online forums), I will actively try to remember that just because I don’t agree with someone doesn’t make him an idiot who can’t understand common sense when I shriek it at him;
• That I will not reflexively use derogatory phrases for groups with whose positions I do not agree (e.g. “Right Wingnuts,” “Moonbat,” etc.). I will actively try to remember that they are people, not ideas, and I should be nice to people;
• That I will not think the worst of a person just because of one thing that I disagree with them on;
• That I will not compare anyone to Hitler or Nazism unless they actually were in the Nazi party in the early twentieth century;
• That I will remain open-minded. I will consider ideas as they are presented to me, and either accept or reject them with grace and appreciation for the discussion;
• That where I am bitter about some particular point of politics, I will direct my anger into more positive avenues such as activism and convincing people to change their minds, not sitting around simmering in anger with the like-minded;
• That I will make good-faith efforts to learn why people hold a different opinion than mine;
• That I will neither support nor listen to political commentators whose main appeal is encouraging anger, rather than encouraging open exchange of ideas;
• And that I will in all circumstances rein in the malice or ill-will I feel, because those are not constructive and will not help me or anyone else fix the problems in our government.

Finally, I will endeavour to be nice, even when all I really want to do is shake someone until they come around to my point of view because it’s obviously more right than theirs — because politics are only fun when people are actually thinking about them instead of acting like obnoxious children.