Where Is Civility on the Ballot?

I read a great article this week about Politics and Civility.  After the year we've had you wouldn't think those two concepts can coexist.  But according to the article, they can and should.  It is just a matter of personal choice.

The article was a composite of three different speeches made at BYU over the past year.  The first gentleman quoted was Mark DeMoss, an evangelical and founder of the public relations agency, The DeMoss Group, who spoke oncampus in January of this year.

After joining to help the Romney campaign back in 2008, he saw the unrest and incivility on the political turf and began a civility project.  He wrote to every sitting governor and every member of congress during the summer of 2010 (anticipating an ugly midterm election) to take a simple pledge regarding their upcoming elections:
          1) I will be civil in my pubic discourse and behavior.
          2) I will be respectful of others, whetheror not I agree with them.
          3) I will stand against incivility where and when Isee it.
Of the 585 letters he sent to these elected officials, only three returned the pledge signed. That is pretty sad.  Is it any wonder the regular, rank-and-file Americas have a hard time keeping a civil tongue when our elected officials can't even commit to behaving and speaking civilly? 

He dissolved the civility project in early 2011.  And Mr.DeMoss made a very good point in this article.  He said, "The First Amendment may give me the right to demonize you with public speech, but it doesn't make it right."  Yet so many people would seem to believe otherwise.





The second author quoted in this article is Karen W. Hale, a former Utah state senator and vice chair of the Utah Democratic Party, and member of the LDS church.  She also was a candidate for Lieutenant Governor a few years ago.  Her insights were pointed as well.

She said "For many public servants, partisanship seems to have taken precedence over the motives that drew them to political involvement in the first place--to promote the public, or common, good and to improve the lives of Americans.

"Looking at the controversial, adversarial nature of politics today, we might ask who in the world would want to get involved?  the partisanship, the bickering, the ridicule, and the name-calling are all legitimate reasons to think twice about jumping into the political arena.  These unsavory by-products also dim our hopes of making a positive difference in our government, communities and society."

Then she quotes former US Senator John Glenn from an interview he did with Time magazine as he was leaving office about 14 years ago.  He says: "I worry about the future when we have so many young people who feel apathetic and critical and cynical about anything having to do with politics.  They don't want to touch it.  And yet, politics is literally the personnel system for democracy.  We've got the finest democracy in the world, but it;s also one of the most complicated.  Not everyone needs to run for public office, but every tie someone drops our of the system it means hey in effect give their franchise to somebody else....If you say politics is so dirty you don't want anything to do with it, what you're really saying is that you don't want to get dirty from democracy."


That is exactly how I have felt about politics.  Especially in the local area.  Man, otherwise rational people can get more than their panties in a knot over a candidate or issue and become completely blind to any discussion or alternative thought.  Then that kind of fringe belief systems drives them into mad, and even crazy, paranoid behaviors.  It definitely keeps me at arm's length from it all.

Ms. Hale  also mentioned a couple of things as they relate to living the Gospel and participating in the political system around us.  The points she makes are not new.  We've heard them from our church leaders for years too.  "It is unlikely that any one party will encompass and represent all of your beliefs.  You will need to select the party with which you most identify." 

And then, quoting Elder Marlin K. Jensen from an 1998 Salt Lake Tribune interview, she adds " principles compatible with the gospel maybe found in the platforms of all major political parties."

Finally, she says "I believe that partisanship--in the sense that we claim a political party and work within the structure of a largely partisan system to participate in the process of government and engage in robust, civil dialogue--is compatible with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

"However, partisanship--in the sense that we demean, belittle, and separate ourselves fro those who hold differing political views ad that we place party success ahead of the common good--is not compatible with the gospel of Jesus Christ.


"Becoming more civil may require that, fro time tot time, we change the radio station or television station, broaden our daily news diet, and listen to people who may disagree with our points of view.  As we work to understand other perspectives, we may just get a taste of where the other side is coming from and occasionally find common ground upon which to build."



I loved her piece.  What a breath of reason to hear the ideas that we can agree to disagree, but that doesn't have to lead us to be disagreeable.

The final portion was from Senator Joseph Lieberman, US senator from Connecticut and the first Jewish person to be nominated for national office with his unsuccessful bid as Al Gore's vice presidential nominee.  He spoke primarily on religion in politics and the base of value that the early Founding Fathers gave our country because of their faith.

He said "...America has been a nation that has been defined not by our borders, but by our values.  One of those founding values was a belief in a higher power--a belief in God....In that way, the United State of America was and is a faith-based initiative....and the First amendment prohibits the establishment of an official religion, ensuring every American the right to worship--or not worship--as he or she chooses.  The full promise of this founding vision, I believe, is one of freedom of religion, not freedom from religion."

The whole article is pretty great.  If you are interested in seeing the rest of this, check the link HERE.  With all this easing my current political headache, I still can't wait for Tuesday to come and go.  No one person can change the country--for good or bad.  But we need to look for those who we feel most likely will represent our own views and then work hard in our own community to help make that vision real.