MOST likely our appeal here will be ignored, but we must try. For even if just a few are moved by our petition and act on it, we would conclude that at least there are still political operatives endowed with a sense of decency.

Two weeks ago we commented in this space that the country is basically in what is known as the political silly season. Although the next general election, constitutionally due by September 2025, has not been called, it is clear, based on the behaviour of both political parties and their supporters, that the campaign is on in earnest.

We had said that during this silly season the country should expect that good sense will not be allowed to prevail, the spin doctors are going to be the highest-paid political functionaries, tribalists will be given free rein, no party position will be seen as too crazy by the faithfuls, no attacks on opponents will be off limits, decency will take a back seat, political expediency will prevail, and no level of ugliness will be spurned.

Over those two weeks we have seen an escalation of all that, especially on social media where truth is a heavy casualty in the cause of scoring political points.

Trolls aligned to both the Opposition People’s National Party and the governing Jamaica Labour Party have been waging the most vile verbal war this country has seen since the Cold War era when both sides were sharply divided by ideology.

We are surprised that no one has yet been sued for many of the reckless, defamatory accusations made daily on social media platforms, which is now like the Hollywood-portrayed Wild West.

Blinkered political activists and their puppet masters obviously regard it as their duty to destroy people’s reputations as if there is some prize for slinging the most mud.

We had hoped for an improvement in behaviour after former Prime Minister P J Patterson last August scolded people in positions of political leadership and authority for engaging in distasteful and disgraceful public discourse that “belittle us as a nation” and sets a poor example for our children.

Mr Patterson had issued his admonition in a heartfelt message to the nation as we marked ‘Emancipendence Week’, a combination of the August 1 Emancipation Day and August 6 Independence Day celebrations.

His message came after a slew of vulgar and disrespectful comments emanating from political platforms and on social media sites that fuelled backlash and fierce exchanges. His comments are worth highlighting again:

“The language used routinely is distasteful, disgraceful, and comments are derogatory. The tone of their delivery is devoid of respect,” he said.

“Instead of mutual respect, a small but vociferous number of our public speakers are consistently mean-spirited and vulgar. This appalling deterioration cannot be allowed to continue without our clear denunciation as ‘one people out of many’. We dare not remain silent as it cannot be condoned,” he argued.

“Our children are watching, hearing, and imitating. How can we impart appropriate values and attitudes to them when such poor examples are set by some in political discourse on matters of national importance? How can we teach them respect when individuals whom they should respect fail to show respect to one another?” he asked.

Dare we hope for a return to decency?