Decorum and “personalization” are two different things that get muddled here.
Decorum is very useful for helping ensure behavior stays within limits and isn’t regretted later. Hardening your opponents’ hearts against you, or turning them into opponents because you acted like an asshole to them, probably doesn’t help your cause. Not that decorum is always useful (inviting Russian soldiers in for tea comes to mind) but on average it’s better than being abrasive.
Politics, on the other hand, are frequently personal. Spending bills for infrastructure or public safety less so, politics around what people can do or what is done to them (masks, vaccinations, marry, have sex, not get hassled by cops) much more so, and politics around things you own or control (build on wetlands, children’s education) in between. Politicians themselves sell themselves as people, personal embodiments of political agendas.
In a direct democracy, it would be entirely personal.
Decorum is very useful for helping ensure behavior stays within limits and isn’t regretted later. Hardening your opponents’ hearts against you, or turning them into opponents because you acted like an asshole to them, probably doesn’t help your cause. Not that decorum is always useful (inviting Russian soldiers in for tea comes to mind) but on average it’s better than being abrasive.
Politics, on the other hand, are frequently personal. Spending bills for infrastructure or public safety less so, politics around what people can do or what is done to them (masks, vaccinations, marry, have sex, not get hassled by cops) much more so, and politics around things you own or control (build on wetlands, children’s education) in between. Politicians themselves sell themselves as people, personal embodiments of political agendas.
In a direct democracy, it would be entirely personal.