Gov. Snyder this week issued an open letter signed by 220 well-intentioned people and groups calling for “civility” in public discourse.
That’s a good thing, right? We all want, as the letter says, “to show the world how we can disagree without being disagreeable, how we can debate without personal attacks, and how we can solve more problems together than we can apart.”
I think just about everyone also agrees that we can and should do better when it comes to political discourse. Frankly, we suck at it right now. We might as well not even have a two party system. Democrats and Republicans compromise on nothing, which is why the laws that are passed tend to be either far right or far left (these days mostly far right), which in effect makes fringe players of the majority in the middle. Which, I’m sorry, is just stupid.
So why, especially as a middle child, doomed to a life of trying to keep the peace, was I turned off by Snyder’s letter?
Well, first, because, in my experience, people who call for civility are usually the ones being the most uncivil in their words and deeds, especially when it comes to politics. They’re also usually the ones currently in power, meaning it behooves them not to have passions ignited.
For instance, Rick Snyder.
Of course HE wants civility. He’s spent the better part of his current term being roasted for his handling of the Flint water crisis, which was so putrid that Fortune magazine named him one of the world’s 19 most disappointing leaders, saying “Called to testify before Congress, Snyder, who touted his competence in his gubernatorial campaign, labeled the experience the “most humbling” of his life — then attempted to shift blame,” earning him the magazine’s “Don’t Blame Me, I’m Just The Governor Award.”
Snyder’s election mantra was “relentless positive action.” But ask the people of Flint their opinion of his sudden call for civility and my guess is they’d react with a relentlessly uncivil flip of a finger, and no one would deserve it more, given his administration’s grudging, slow-roll response to the crisis.
The truth about civility is it’s grossly overrated in some instances. Again, ask Flint. It was incivility, in fact – a refusal to no longer stay quiet and accept the treatment they were getting from the state, including an official telling them to “relax” as tainted brown gunk poured from faucets – that finally brought the water crisis to light.
If citizens hadn’t fussed and fumed, it’s likely more people would have died (to date, at least 12 people died from Legionnaire’s disease tied to the water and 79 were sickened.)
If they hadn’t shown up at forums clutching bottles of yellow water, if they hadn’t scrawled angry messages in chalk on the sidewalks outside Snyder’s posh downtown Ann Arbor condo, even more children would have been at risk of developmental issues tied to lead.
Local and state government wasn’t in any hurry to fix the water. Instead they seemed more interesting in downplaying or dismissing it. If the citizens of Flint hadn’t demanded answers and “relentless positive action,” there’s a good chance they’d never have gotten it.
And this thing would have gone on and on.
So let me politely say this: Civility is in the eye of the beholder, Mr. Snyder.
Sometimes being uncivil is the most civil thing you can do.
Image credit: Oladimeji Odunsi on Unsplash
Linda Ann says
July 22, 2018 at 12:00 pmIt appears that Gov. Snyder is bored (not to mention boring). Someone needs to point out to him all the work that needs to be done instead of writing silly letters.
Sorry Governor, if the highly educated leaders in all walks of life in Michigan didn’t learn how to be civil yet, then this problem is way bigger than it appears. Being civil to each other no matter where people meet is what we should have learned before we got to kindergarten.
Maybe the Governor could write a letter to Betsy DeVos and ask her to make sure that all children pass a civility test before kindergarten, and then have a civility refresher at each grade level. Those who DO NOT comply will be eligible for jobs in Lansing and D.C.
Rick says
July 22, 2018 at 12:17 pmAndy Heller, this line “The truth about civility is it’s grossly overrated in some instances,” is so perfect, so simple, and so true. Civility, as you have pointed out before, is one of the reasons that Democrats keep losing elections.
MommaBear says
July 22, 2018 at 2:03 pmSo, people need to be reminded to be civil. They need to be reminded not to use distortions, exaggerations, and outright lies during campaigns and other discourses, whether in person or social media. They need to be reminded to listen to hear what someone has to say, rather than listen only to respond. Maybe these 220 people who signed the letter will be doing the reminding, because we’ve become such a free-wheeling, “say it like it is” society, where free speech protects what the speaker is saying but no one else, and people feel free to attack without verification.
Jims says
July 22, 2018 at 9:09 pmAgree with you totally. It just seems to be in this day and age that everyone analyzes every little thing that you say. Did he mean this by saying that or did he mean something totally different? You have trolls on this thread that do just that. Useless comments that they just say what they want behind a computer that they would never have the guts to say to your face.
Tom says
July 24, 2018 at 6:42 pmWe have deadly floods on the East Coast, and deadly heat and fires out west. Has anyone else noticed that the Lord seems to be punishing the parts of the USA that have refused to support President Donald Trump? Huh?!
Tom says
July 27, 2018 at 6:33 pmPolitics with the primary elections approaching: On TV, I see the Republicans trying to compete with each other based on their relationships with Trump. They tell us how much they like him, and try to tell us their opponents like him less. Closer and more sycophant to Trump is better in their world.
The Democrats, on the other hand, compete with one another based on how much they dislike Trump, how diametrically opposed to Trump they are.
In real life, we are in bad shape, politically. Trump is running us to the Inferno, but there is no way rationally to discuss politics with all them gall-durn country-fried gun-lovin’ hard-head dimwits.
Tom says
July 29, 2018 at 7:48 pmOur leaders characterize our eras and our lives. When Jimmy Carter was President, we knew we had a well-intentioned moral Christian in charge. When Ike was in office, we had a Hero Grandpa.
Now, we have a cynical, dim, smart-ass, meaner-than-heck self-focused fool who dyes his hair and pays off girlfriends. I hate this era.
Tom says
July 29, 2018 at 8:35 pmPresident Donald Trump would have been on the side of the Redcoats during the American Revolution, would have been on the side of Jefferson Davis during the Civil War, was on the side of Hugh Hefner and Joseph McCarthy, rather than Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy.
We live in sad times.