I often quote the 18th century French historian Alexis de Tocqueville’s assessment of America’s magic: “America is great,” de Tocqueville wrote, “because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, then America will cease to be great.” I truly believe this sentiment. However, in recent years I have seen and heard things in our nation’s political discourse that lead me to wonder if America is losing its inherent goodness, and make me fearful of our future greatness.

During the 1992, 1994 and 1996 election cycles, the Christian Coalition, Rush Limbaugh and other right-wing groups deliberately distorted and misrepresented the records of Democrats as they sought to mobilize their constituencies on behalf of their favored Republicans. The daily diatribes and vitriolic hyperbole by Limbaugh toward those with whom he disagreed politically were often beyond the pale and far off the mark.

When I pointed out these distortions, as The State recently did to those of the American Conservative Union about Gov. Mark Sanford, I was chastised mercilessly by my critics, and fearfully by my supporters.

At the time, I warned that Rush Limbaugh was a detriment to the political process, not because he was a Republican attacking President Clinton, but because he was allowed to express any thought that came to his mind unchecked.

That wild abandon has led to political talk shows wishing to entertain more than they care to inform, and has created an unhealthy political climate. And so have recent distasteful remarks about President Bush and degrading characterizations of the presumptive vice presidential nominee, John Edwards, at a recent Democratic Party fund-raiser at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.

I was appalled by comedian Whoopi Goldberg’s remarks. I did not see the program, but if press reports are accurate, her comments were not only inappropriate, they were reprehensible. She catapulted over the line of decency and landed herself, and the Democratic ticket she ostensibly came to support, in a quagmire of a morality debate. Ms. Goldberg’s rants have further escalated the downward spiral in political discourse and given fodder to those forces we Democrats are fighting to defeat.

Unfortunately, such discourse seems to have become accepted, and sadly even expected, as part of the political landscape these days. Even the vice president felt the floor of the U.S. Senate an appropriate place to launch obscenities at Sen. Patrick Leahy because he has been critical of alleged war profiteering by Dick Cheney’s former company, Halliburton.

There are plenty of issues in this presidential campaign that draw clear distinctions between the two tickets: the manner in which we were led or misled into the war with Iraq and its aftermath, the security of our homeland and communities, the lack of job creation and unfair trade policies, tax cuts for the wealthy and corporate greed, ballooning deficits and record bankruptcies, etc. Yet the remarks from Ms. Goldberg bypassed political fodder, and went straight to the crass and off-color remarks that appeal to only the most base among us.

There is no reason to wonder why the best among us are tending against public service. It takes more than a tough skin and a strong sense of self to subject oneself to the discourteous and distasteful political environment that is so commonplace today. This climate undermines our democracy and weakens our country in the process.

With each passing day I appreciate more and more the values my parents and many others feverishly taught: “Just because you think it doesn’t mean you have to say it.” We seem to be losing our sense of goodness. And if de Tocqueville’s admonition becomes reality, we have only ourselves to blame.

Mr. Clyburn represents South Carolina’s 6th District in Congress.