Blogs and Ad hominem attacks

I was writing on a blog recently and felt that I became the target of numerous personal attacks. I was surprised by this because it was a political blog discussing current issues in the Milwaukee area. However, my political leanings seems to bring out the devil in quite a few other bloggers. I wonder if these individuals would state the same things to my face. I was appalled by some of their statements:

“Leftists are by their very nature bigots.”
“You, the social worker, still will be blind to the real truth until you actually work for your money, and realize what is really going on. “
“You need to do a little research, that is if you are educated to do so, oh, and if you have time, as you are a Milwaukee Social Worker, we all know how hard you work. Maybe you can use some of our tax dollars doing so on OUR time, like you have so so nicely during your work day already.”
“So get off your high liberal stupid butt pedastal and face facts. You have no idea what you are talking about. “
“milwaukeesocialworker, you disgust me. You couldn’t make it without a government subsidy.”
“You’re waisting space currently. I’m not purposely insulting you. You do that just fine on your own.”
“You make me physically ill. I seriously and sincerely hope you are violently victimized by one of these bastards you keep defending.You deserve it.”

These are just a few of the rediculous things individuals said to me. How are we supposed to have healthy discourse about issues and create good policies and change if we can’t stick to the issues? What good will personal attacks create? How are we to create a virtual community of open discourse with individuals who feel the need to do this?