On stage at his rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, angry, lips set, tearing into Kamala Harris, J. D. Vance snapped, ‘She can go to hell.’

Meantime, over on Truth Social, Trump retweeted a meme showing Harris standing beside Hillary Clinton, above the line ‘Funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers differently.’

Most of us remember the days when rudeness backfired. Jesse Helms was tough. So was Jim Hunt. But during their brutal Senate race both did their best to be polite. Because people demanded that. We live in a different world today.

Here in North Carolina Trump, Harris, Josh Stein, Mark Robinson are all blanketing the airwaves with TV ads – some, with common everyday people talking, you might watch; in others you see a flashy graphic, hear a screechy sound effect, the meanness in the announcer’s voice, and tune out.

These days rudeness is the new norm. Just go on Twitter and look around. You see it all over the place.

Trump’s probably not going to fix that problem. Will Kamala Harris? We’ll have to wait and see. But that’s what swing voters, who’ll decide this election, are looking for – a road back to better days.