There was ice in the room the first time I met Gary Pearce – we stared at each other across a polished table in a conference room negotiating the Helms-Hunt debates.

That campaign was brutal like a prize fight but, at the same time, sitting around that table people on both sides were polite to the people they disagreed with.

During that campaign courtesy only broke down once – when a Helms’ supporter called Jim Hunt ‘sissy, prissy and effeminate’ in his newspaper. Jesse, Tom Ellis and I all condemned the smear. But Jesse still nose-dived in the polls. Back then when a campaign threw courtesy out the window it paid a price.

Those days are gone.

Hurling insults, name calling, is now popular. Last week Trump called Kamala Harris evil, unhinged, sick, and ‘dumb as a rock’ and people cheered – hardly a soul said, He went too far, crossed the line.

So how did everyday hard-working Americans come to embrace hurling insults? It’s hard to be sure of the answer.

Trump fights like a New York street kid, mocking ‘Little Mario,’ ‘Crooked Hillary,’ and ‘Sleepy Joe.’ He’s also entertaining, people enjoy watching him hurl insults and cheer.

Biden, who’s a life-long Washington politician, isn’t entertaining. But to his credit he doesn’t hurl insults – while copying Trump a lot of Republican politicians like Marjorie Taylor Greene do.

The line ‘love your neighbor’ is written in the Bible in nine places. For Christians that commandment was the foundation stone of courtesy and mutual respect. That ground’s crumbled beneath our feet. That’s a loss we pay a price for – and cheering insults is just the start.