They are the two words that have been repeated again and again as the nation said goodbye to "41."
George Herbert Walker Bush, 41st president of the United States, often said he sought a "kinder, gentler" America and world.
Now the same words are being applied to him and his four years in the White House.
It's more than that. The elder Bush exuded civility, and it rippled through the country he led.
Today, our political discourse has devolved into the same nadir that so much of our daily lives is consumed by - the lowest common denominator.
We no longer discuss issues. We shout.
Civil? That's gone out the window. Now the argument is won by the person who can yell the loudest.
We are crude, rude and seemingly constantly looking for what divides us, as opposed to what brings us together.
Now it's not about what is good for the country, it's what advances our ideology.
This is going to sound entirely hypocritical, given what I do for a living, but I see something else at work here.
Is it just me or is it going unnoticed that when George W. Bush was president, there was no Internet.
No Facebook. No Twitter.
Kinder and gentler?
I don't think you can explain the way we have changed without examining the way we communicate, in particular the ability to do so under the veil of anonymity.
If I'm wrong - and it certainly would not be the first time - feel free to point it out.
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