Search for Civility
I'm sure that a lot of other people out there have seen the videos from Tampa and from St. Louis. I saw them, both groups looked like a bunch of wild animals - gorillas gone wild. There are some Post-Dispatch photos from St. Louis that look worse, if that's possible. Add to that today's commentary from Charles Blow and Gail Collins and things seem to be getting out of hand in the US. That I can agree with. But these "fire-with-fire" responses are wrong-headed. We're suffering from the destruction of our social discourse and poor leadership. Pointing fingers has been done to death - "It's [O'Reilly, Beck, The Blogs, Libural Media, Corporate Media]!" That hasn't solved the problem yet. We need to reengage with our wider communities and we need to challenge our leadership to regain some national unity.
The videos above from Tampa and St. Louis opened my eyes to just how bad things have gotten. I never dreamed that even simple discussion, townhall meetings would be impossible because of the risk of mobs and violence. That mob mentality was especially obvious in the Tampa scene. The way they were chanting and banging on the door was scary. One person finds the courage to start behaving badly and others find it much easier to follow. Not only will this kind of behavior shut down the process, it doesn't just poison the well, this is scorched-earth political warfare.
But that analysis alone was obvious enough to Blow and Collins. But neither of them, nor anyone else I've come across, has even identified the deeper problem that plagues us, the destruction of our social discourse. Our social discourse is our ability to work together and to communicate with the people around us. It is our ability to have cooperative relationships that are built upon respect and mutual consideration. It's our ability to have a community. And it has been completely degraded. We've known that this has been happening for a while, and we've done a thorough job of pointing fingers at some of the parties responsible. But this hasn't stopped the process and now we are seeing some of the consequences of our neglect.
We let ourselves slip into the mindset that every issue, especially healthcare reform, is a matter of life and death, therefore we must do anything we can to achieve it. But we've forgotten that if we lose the basic ability to work together with others, we've lost something far greater than anything else we could hope to achieve. If we lose our greater sense of community, we've truly lost everything. That's why the people in those videos look like animals. We must work towards our goals while maintaining a level of decency, respect, and cooperation that will sustain our national community.
Moving forward with this kind of cooperative mindset might seem like it will lead to negotiating with right-wingers and rewarding them for their silly behavior. That of course would only encourage them - that would be foolish. No, I'm afraid my advice, while specific, isn't going to solve the national political stalemate.
I'm going to direct my efforts in two directions. First, I'm going to reach out to my own personal community. As much as I enjoy Dailykos, from the front page, to the diaries and comments, I'm talking about my friends and family. Dailykos has an echo chamber effect and I want to reach outside. I'm going to write e-mails and make phone calls. I'm going to try and talk with people about healthcare reform and I'm never going to say anything that could even be mistaken as a talking point. As soon as people think I'm not talking from my heart, they'll stop listening, they'll ignore me. Additionally, I'm going to try and keep a very open mind. I think I've got the right idea on HCR, but if I'm not open going into these discussions, the people I talk with won't be either. That mental calcification is one of the biggest problems with our debased social discourse. I'm going to talk with anybody. I have a brother-in-law who listens to right-wing radio and loves to repeat some of what he hears. We don't see eye-to-eye. He will not be the first person I try to engage with, but he's definitely on my mental list.
The second place I will direct my efforts is my elected officials and community leaders. They have failed and they need to be challenged to do a better job in their role as leaders. They need to look for ways to engage with the groups that are dissenting to try and bring them back into the discussion process. They need to show these groups, even the "keep government out of medicare!" groups, that we respect them and we want to hear what they have to say. Have a public meeting and keep the whole show running as long as is needed - all night. Give the shouters some microphones, give them a platform. If we show them every courtesy possible and they still behave like animals, their support will crater. This is something I can't do, but I can tell our elected leaders to step up and fulfill their responsibilities to us as a community.
If we allow our country's politics to continue to devolve into a war of might we will surely fail to achieve even the most modest goals.
Instead, we will have destroyed something much more important.
Cross-posted at DailyKos.
The videos above from Tampa and St. Louis opened my eyes to just how bad things have gotten. I never dreamed that even simple discussion, townhall meetings would be impossible because of the risk of mobs and violence. That mob mentality was especially obvious in the Tampa scene. The way they were chanting and banging on the door was scary. One person finds the courage to start behaving badly and others find it much easier to follow. Not only will this kind of behavior shut down the process, it doesn't just poison the well, this is scorched-earth political warfare.
But that analysis alone was obvious enough to Blow and Collins. But neither of them, nor anyone else I've come across, has even identified the deeper problem that plagues us, the destruction of our social discourse. Our social discourse is our ability to work together and to communicate with the people around us. It is our ability to have cooperative relationships that are built upon respect and mutual consideration. It's our ability to have a community. And it has been completely degraded. We've known that this has been happening for a while, and we've done a thorough job of pointing fingers at some of the parties responsible. But this hasn't stopped the process and now we are seeing some of the consequences of our neglect.
We let ourselves slip into the mindset that every issue, especially healthcare reform, is a matter of life and death, therefore we must do anything we can to achieve it. But we've forgotten that if we lose the basic ability to work together with others, we've lost something far greater than anything else we could hope to achieve. If we lose our greater sense of community, we've truly lost everything. That's why the people in those videos look like animals. We must work towards our goals while maintaining a level of decency, respect, and cooperation that will sustain our national community.
Moving forward with this kind of cooperative mindset might seem like it will lead to negotiating with right-wingers and rewarding them for their silly behavior. That of course would only encourage them - that would be foolish. No, I'm afraid my advice, while specific, isn't going to solve the national political stalemate.
I'm going to direct my efforts in two directions. First, I'm going to reach out to my own personal community. As much as I enjoy Dailykos, from the front page, to the diaries and comments, I'm talking about my friends and family. Dailykos has an echo chamber effect and I want to reach outside. I'm going to write e-mails and make phone calls. I'm going to try and talk with people about healthcare reform and I'm never going to say anything that could even be mistaken as a talking point. As soon as people think I'm not talking from my heart, they'll stop listening, they'll ignore me. Additionally, I'm going to try and keep a very open mind. I think I've got the right idea on HCR, but if I'm not open going into these discussions, the people I talk with won't be either. That mental calcification is one of the biggest problems with our debased social discourse. I'm going to talk with anybody. I have a brother-in-law who listens to right-wing radio and loves to repeat some of what he hears. We don't see eye-to-eye. He will not be the first person I try to engage with, but he's definitely on my mental list.
The second place I will direct my efforts is my elected officials and community leaders. They have failed and they need to be challenged to do a better job in their role as leaders. They need to look for ways to engage with the groups that are dissenting to try and bring them back into the discussion process. They need to show these groups, even the "keep government out of medicare!" groups, that we respect them and we want to hear what they have to say. Have a public meeting and keep the whole show running as long as is needed - all night. Give the shouters some microphones, give them a platform. If we show them every courtesy possible and they still behave like animals, their support will crater. This is something I can't do, but I can tell our elected leaders to step up and fulfill their responsibilities to us as a community.
If we allow our country's politics to continue to devolve into a war of might we will surely fail to achieve even the most modest goals.
Instead, we will have destroyed something much more important.
Cross-posted at DailyKos.
posted by Jacob Gerber at
12:34 AM
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