Whatever Happened to Civil Discourse?

There’s a surrealistic tinge to the politics of today, an almost insurmountable hurdle that subverts any possibility of reaching viable solutions for the troubling issues that confront us. It is we the people’s business our elected officials are chosen to conduct. Regrettably, the means to deliver on that mandate is often stymied by opportunistic propaganda and partisan contempt for truthful dialogue and the corruption of meaningful process.

The president delivered a message to school children encouraging them to make the most of their school experience - - do their homework, read, pay attention in class, be careful what they post on Face Book. But some parents, ‘enlightened’ no doubt by those strange eerie voices on the right, objected to their kids hearing what they claimed would be a radical rant. “I don’t want my kids being taught to become little socialists” one woman declared. In fact there was nothing radical about the speech as anyone who cared to listen can affirm. But what’s the cure for stupid? And how does one go about prying open the closed minds of those who listen without hearing?

A sorry display of partisan rancor emerged during the president’s address to a joint session of Congress Wednesday night. Questions may remain about the details in various versions of health-care-reform legislation, but when did members of Congress in the past hold up signs confronting the president or make loud comments during a speech? There were numerous occasions when such observations might have been justified in the Bush years - - remember WMD, yellowcake, solutions to our energy addiction which turned out to be a call for more domestic drilling, oil revenue from Iraq that would pay for the war there? - - the list is as they say, endless, though President Bush was not subjected to any rude interruptions when he addressed Congress.

But Representative Joe Wilson, R. South Carolina, sank to a new low when he shouted “you lie” as the president spoke. And his apology was the typical gibberish politicians often use to excuse bad behavior. “While I disagree,” he said, “with the president’s remarks regarding coverage of illegal immigrants” in the health-reform legislation, I apologize for my lack of civility. Basically, he was still implying that the president lied. How did a president of the United States come to be treated in such a disrespectful manner? Why is it suddenly acceptable for people who would undoubtedly describe themselves as patriots to engage in unseemly behavior that demeans the office? What will school children make of this; what will people in other lands make of such conduct?

In his remarks to Congress the President said “we must “meet history’s test” to provide adequate, affordable health care for all because “that is our character”, our “moral imperative.” And he said “when reason and civil conversation become impossible we lose something essential about ourselves.” After his inspiring words, the Republican response from LA’s Representative Charles Boustany, (a cardiologist) was about as lame as it could possibly be. One could ‘sing along’ with the familiar refrain his party uses to pretend they actually have a health-care plan - - medical savings accounts, tort reform, the usual drill.

Over at Fox Sean Hannity, supported by Michelle Malkin, criticized the president for not saying something positive about “the best health-care system in the world.” Some agree with that assessment although they add “if you can afford it.” As Barbara Ehrenreich put it in her book This Land is Their Land, “…we Americans just couldn’t figure out the technology for distributing health care to the people who need it. We left the whole business to business, and business screwed it up.”

There is a large contingent of Republican doctors in Congress, people who represent the medical establishment in close alliance with the health-care industry. One wonders why, if they are so committed to the cause of good health, they don’t continue to practice their craft instead of practicing political gamesmanship.

But at least one question was answered by the behavior of Republicans during the president’s health-care speech - - the looney-tune outbursts at town-hall meetings are in sync with their looney-tune counterparts in Congress. It is also the case that the cries of socialism and other departures from rational thought are the result of those who derive their talking points from the demonic utterances of truth-challenged demagogues.