The Republican Party -- my Republican Party -- once understood the deep importance of shame. Shame can be misused to harm those who don't deserve it -- but it remains an important part of a free, peaceful society. It forces you to act for others as well as yourself. Unfortunately, we've lost it.

When you have no shame, why worry about how your actions affect our nation? Why be ashamed of shouting down people who are trying to participate in democracy? Why be ashamed of hoping that our nation fails? The other side's position was evil anyways.

When you have no shame, it's fine to prioritize your position and your party over solutions. Sure, our country would be better off if we compromised and worked together. But why be ashamed of wanting power, instead? After all, the other side must be defeated. Hurting our nation is worth it.

When you have no shame, a lie is as good as the truth. "Truth" and "facts" might get in the way of your position. Why be ashamed of willful ignorance? Things like "facts" are so malleable -- don't get caught in the trap of being ashamed of what you believe. Hold on to your beliefs! Hold them in the face of all opposition, because you're right and deserve to win. (Besides, as a great philosopher once said, you can use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!)

When you have no shame, it's no problem to argue that the law should depend on the person before it. Why be ashamed of changing your position based on which party it will benefit? If it helps you, do it!

When you have no shame, the law itself is irrelevant -- you should push to the very edge of what you can do and get away with it. Whether something is "right" or "wrong" or "moral" is a question for lesser men. Do whatever you can get away with.

When you have no shame, wild accusations against the other side are perfectly acceptable. Call them brownshirts, accuse them of wildly implausible conspiracies. I mean, if people believe it, then it's true -- right?

When you have no shame, no blow is too low. Claiming the president isn't a citizen? Whether you believe it or not, it's useful -- why be ashamed of using every tool in your arsenal to tear down your opponent? And, hey, some people might hear that and get carried away -- but why should you be ashamed of what people do in response to your words? Do unto others as benefits you.

When you have no shame, your religion can be a bludgeon against those who disagree with you. Remember, you must use every weapon in your arsenal to promote your point of view. You are oppressed by those who disagree with you -- their very existence oppresses you. Why be ashamed of twisting God's words to defeat them? What you want is what God wants. So why be ashamed of hissing "Merry Christmas" at a Jewish shopkeeper -- you deserve to have your religion acknowledged. And why be ashamed of demanding that schoolchildren other than your own be forced to pray -- those who believe differently from you should not be here anyways.

In short, why be ashamed of doing whatever you want to get what you want? Isn't it more important for your views to win?

We justify this approach the only way one can justify it -- self-aggrandizement and demonization of the other side.

Acting in a shameless manner for your own selfish ends is the epitome of evil. That we resist such selfish acts is what separates societies from savagery. Christian societies -- or those that claim to be -- should be particularly aware of this basic truth: Jesus said to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Put his needs above yours, and allow him to do the same. Work together, and love him even if he's different from you.

But if you instead hate your neighbor -- if you believe him or her to be evil, to be "out to get you," to be the antichrist -- then anything is possible. Why be ashamed of doing anything you want to someone you hate? He deserves it.

But hatred is not enough to justify such selfish acts. You might be ashamed of such hatred, and that would never do. So you must also believe that your views are utterly, inherently correct. You must believe that you are blessed by God, that your position is the ONLY position. You must believe that no debate is necessary - that you are just...right.

Only then, when you've surrendered to the belief in your inherent rightness and your opponent's inherent evil, can you abandon shame and do whatever you need to do. But this view -- this way of being -- is not only antithetical to Democracy (and Christianity, for that matter), it is also childish.

A democracy only works when a large majority of the country can resist the childish urge to believe themselves inherently right, and to demonize those that disagree. I'm not sure we have that any more. I have hope that we've regained that large majority, and that the selfish among us are loud but not numerous. But childish hatred is attractive. It's easy. It gives you a purpose in life. A childish, uneducated populace fed by a belief that education is valueless or even (to hear some conservatives talk) immoral is a populace extraordinarily prone to fall into shamelessness.

Hard answers, hard work to reach solutions...yeah, they're hard. They take a better people than I fear we've become -- a people shamed into being better than their baser instincts. As a nation, I fear that we will slide down that slippery, shameless slope -- and that the only thing that will make adults of us again will be more hardship brought on by our own foolish, childish, selfish choices.