In Praise of Political Gentlemen… and Ladies

Heat and hostility in politics is as old as politics itself. Just open  the Old Testament and you’ll see King Saul plotting to murder David, yet an act of mercy such as David shows Saul in the end is hardly a common plot point in today’s political dramas.

Merrill Jensen’s book, “The Founding of a Nation” tells a story from December 1763 about Massachusetts merchants attempting to prevent the renewal of the Molasses Act, saying, “Party warfare rather than colonial policy governed what followed.”

History is full of political figures engaging in petty squabbling like that seen in Congress’ failed bailout proceedings this past week,  all those egos fiddling while Rome burns. Yet the fact that something is common or rooted in history is no justification for continuing wrongheaded behavior. Nasty and dishonest politics damages us citizens, and it belies the fact that we, as individuals, as parties, as a nation, can and should do far better.

Mourning the extinction of civil discourse

I recently discovered an article called “How to Debate Politics Civilly,” which said, “These days rousing, yet respectful political debate is practically non-existent. The new media, far from presenting balanced, in-depth coverage of the important, meaty issues of the day, spend their time constantly regurgitating manufactured scandals and fanning the flames of personality contests. Debates between men in person, and especially on the internet, quickly devolve into indignant shouting matches, where personal insults are substituted for rational arguments.”

Frankly, the bipartisan politics of the last twenty years is just not worthy of our once and future “shining city on a hill.” Even more importantly, our country has and should again be an example of the best aspects of western civilization. Specifically, we should demand that our politicians and their advisors engage in civil discourse, rewarding those who do with our votes, and writing passionate,  pointed, and, yes, still polite letters to those who persist in gutter politics.

We can also show integrity by being civilized in our own political discussions, avoiding the distortions and willful ignorance that only increase the great partisan divide.

Raising the bar

Recently my husband and I were discussing a candidate for higher office, and he said, “Frankly, I think that candidate is about as smart as I am. That’s not good enough. I want the leader of my country to be a genius.”  By the same token, we should outspokenly call our nation’s leaders to a higher standard of civilized behavior.

As Michael Seitzmann recently wrote of the first presidential debate on the economy and foreign relations, “Those issues are far too important to all of us to be obfuscated by the kind of pettiness we hope to never see in our leaders. Those who aspire to lead us are supposed to be the best among us. They are supposed to transcend and rise above those they would hope to lead.”

A breath of fresh air

It’s easy enough to cite examples of bad behavior on the parts of the Obama and McCain campaigns. It may be senior advisors and voiceover actors who say the words in the news and political ads, but we all know who “approved this message.”

So to inject a breath of fresh air into my small corner of our red-hot political atmosphere, I’m presenting recent examples of gentlemanly behavior in the 2008 presidential campaign. In at least one case, the kind words were intended to put right a former slight, which is important in its own right. To wit:

· After the dismissive reference by Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to Senator Obama’s work as a community organizer during summers off from his studies at Columbia University, there was an outcry about the insult to community organizers, who work to “keep people in their homes, keep their lights on, keep food in the fridge.” Following that, at a memorial to the victims of the 9-11 attacks, including the firemen and law enforcement workers who died, Senator McCain said, “Of course I respect people who’ve served their communities, and Senator Obama’s record there is outstanding.”

· Following the announcement of Governor Palin’s daughter’s pregnancy out of wedlock, which was itself a response to a blogger’s conspiracy theory that the youngest Palin child is actually Sarah Palin’s grandchild, Senator Obama was asked for a comment. He said, "Let me be as clear as possible. I think people's families are off-limits, and people's children are especially off-limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as governor or her potential performance as a vice president." He then went on to say that reporters should "back off these kinds of stories."

· Perhaps the most inflammatory of all recent political figures, Bill Clinton, has had positive things to say about both current presidential candidates. On television’s “The View” program, he opined, “I genuinely like both of them. I genuinely admire both of them. I think that we make a terrible mistake believing we have to find something wrong with the people we can't vote for.”

Let’s do our country a service and call on our politicians to behave like this, like gentlemen and ladies, to  set their standard of behavior higher and engage in honest communication at all times and on every front. Our children need heroes to look up to, and so do we. As journalist-philosopher Walter Lippmann said, “When men are brought face to face with their opponents, forced to listen and learn and mend their ideas, they cease to be children and savages and begin to live like civilized men. Then only is freedom a reality, when men may voice their opinions because they must examine their opinions. “

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