This would be comical if it weren’t just sad: A national nonprofit group has launched a campaign to reduce the mudslinging and name-calling among politicians by having them sign a pledge to act in a civil manner.
The pledge designed by the National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD) is aimed at state legislators but apparently the folks who organized the upcoming presidential debates are interested in using a similar pledge as a guideline for the participating candidates.
According to the website routefifty.com, which specializes in issues facing state and local governments, the pledge was a topic at a summit in Chicago held last week by the National Conference of State Legislatures. NICD executive director Carolyn Lukensmeyer called on state lawmakers to sign the set of civility standards to help raise the bar for political conduct.
Route Fifty also reports that the NICD was contacted earlier this year by the Commission on Presidential Debates to come up with a similar set of standards for candidates, moderators and audiences at the debates scheduled for the fall. Those guidelines may be released after Labor Day.
The standards call on politicos to act respectful toward others; take responsibility for their behavior and speech; speak truthfully; and focus on policy, as opposed to impugning the character of opponents.
At a time when schoolyard bully tactics have become the norm in a campaign world where facts no longer matter much, the civility pledge approach seems laughable.
The belief that conniving politicians who sign the pledge would not effortlessly break the agreement is hopelessly naive. After all, this is 2016, the year of Donald Trump.
Political consultants shudder at the thought that the lesson learned from the brutal presidential campaign among some wannabe politicians is “Be like Trump.”
So, far the inclination among elected officials has been to ignore the pledge.
A state lawmaker in Ohio who strongly supports the pledge has acknowledged that getting lawmakers in the Buckeye State onboard with civility initiatives supported by NICD has been “a slow process.” A training session there last fall attracted just 15 legislators, according to Route Fifty. The Ohio House has 99 members and the Senate 33. Around 75 people attended a follow up event earlier this summer that was also open to members of the public.
But that was a gathering mostly of people, not politicians. Reformers and activists like the idea of upgrading political discourse. The practitioners – not so much. As of Friday, at least 488 people from 43 states had signed the standards for state legislators. Among those, just 39 identified themselves as public officials.
Revive Civility in American Political Discourse?
“Dating back to our first president, here are memorable insults lobbed at presidents, by presidents or during presidential campaigns:
“Filthy Story-Teller, Despot, Liar, Thief, Braggart, Buffoon, Usurper, Monster, Ignoramus Abe, Old Scoundrel, Perjurer, Robher, Swindler, Tyrant, Field-Butcher, Land-Pirate.” — various people insulting President Abraham Lincoln, 1864 election
This was a list of insults collected by Harper’s Weekly, and it’s worth noting that the election took place during the Civil War, so they came from people on the same side of the Mason-Dixon line as Lincoln. His opponent was George B. McClellan, who served under Lincoln as commander of the department of Ohio military district. McClellan had his own arsenal against “Ignoramus Abe,” calling him a “well-meaning baboon.”
“That dark designing sordid ambitious vain proud arrogant and vindictive knave.” — Gen. Charles Lee on George Washington
Lee had a deep-seated resentment of Washington after being court-martialed at the end of the Revolutionary War. Washington had ordered Lee to attack at the Battle of Monmouth, but Lee called a retreat. Lee believed Washington and other national leaders were out to get him, claiming Washington was plotting to assassinate him.
“General Jackson’s mother was a COMMON PROSTITUTE, brought to this country by the British soldiers! She afterward married a MULATTO MAN, with whom she had several children, of which number General JACKSON IS ONE!!!” — Charles Hammond, editor of the Cincinnati Gazette, on Andrew Jackson
This quote, with its sporadic capitalization and overused punctuation, looks and sounds like something posted to Twitter today. Akin to the claims against Barack Obama, Andrew Jackson’s opponents had their own “birther conspiracy,” grounded in the fact that Jackson’s parents were Scotch-Irish immigrants, and his father died a few weeks before he was born. Hammond supported John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay, who opposed Jackson in 1824.
“His argument is as thin as the homeopathic soup that was made by boiling the shadow of a pigeon that had been starved to death.” — Abraham Lincoln on Stephen Douglas, 1858
Lincoln and Douglas, who would run against each other two years later for president, were then vying for a U.S. Senate seat in Illinois. The debate stage proved to be a perfect venue for political mudslinging. Much of Douglas’ rhetoric was rooted in race baiting — he called Lincoln’s party the “Black Republicans.” This specific insult of Lincoln’s was an attack on Douglas’ stance that slavery should be a matter of popular sovereignty.
“Never ask me to support a twaddler and trimmer for office” —Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens on Ulysses S. Grant
“Grant is as brainless as his saddle” — activist Wendell Phillips on Grant.”
Read more at link below:
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/insight/2016/04/10/01-political-insults-you-didnt-learn-about-in-history-class.html
By William T. Perkins – The Columbus Dispatch
Sunday April 10, 2016