Give it up, anybody that thinks that this 'war' can be won with manners. You're dealing with the lowest of the low. If there's a bar, they'll crawl under it. This war, if you want to call it that, is going to be won with honor and integrity. That's what The People want.
Slinging mud in the pit at each other doesn't accomplish a damn thing because no matter how much mud you hurl at the shameless, it fits them like a fine suit. You're the one who gets muddy in the process because you have lowered yourself, demeaned yourself, debased yourself, and they know it. Now you can be reckoned with. "You wanna play in MY arena?" You are out of your element.
The same holds true for honor and integrity, which is out of the shameless ones' element. They can't go there. So prove that you can, and see who follows you. Stand up for what is right, and by that I mean what's really right and not what some who claim to be right want because what is right for those folks is, when held up to the light of honor and integrity (even though they may claim to espouse that) will be seen as flawed reasoning. And it is reasoning that the shameless fear the most. Sound arguments, logical conclusions, true facts (not alternative ones), consequences to actions that have a long term effect in mind and are not there to satisfy short term personal agendas, and so much more.
Those who operate in the dark can't stand to see the light and if it shines on them out comes the mud and the slime and the smears to bring you down into the place where they like to engage and in that place nothing ever comes out clean, which is 'normal' for them, for they can't perceive shame. They don't have the wisdom, though they think they do, but you do and if this applies to you and you understand it you're already there.
Battles are messy. Integrity is sparkly clean. If you're in integrity it's who you are, and it's always in real time. There is no future for integrity because integrity is always now. Beating around the bush is a delay tactic. Solutions are now. Progress is now. It's never 'then' or 'when'. It's now.
The shameless play follow the leader until he falters, then they scatter lest they become identified with a loser. Integrity is always able to stand alone.
Honor is a quality, not an objective. There is no aspiring to honorable action. It, like integrity, is ever present.
In the mud-slinging pits confusion reigns, subterfuge oozes, and treachery takes place of trust. There is no big picture view, and even the little one can't be clearly seen. Shameless activity brings sorrow like clouds bring rain. Forever has this been true, and forever will it remain true.
Splitting people into factions makes them easy to control, but impossible to rule. This was understood by the true leaders of old, that it is better to unite than to divide. But shameless leaders don't understand that. They never do (and placing God on your side in order to bolster your cause doesn't work either).
Look for the shameless ones to double down on any bet you make, then sidestep their gambit with an honorable move of your own. This they cannot tolerate, for it takes you out of their game. Off their playing field you cannot be reached.
Standing up to the shameless is a choice, but never a duty. It's up to us now, as it always has been.
From Websters:
Honor- 'good name or public esteem'
Integrity- 'firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values'