Civility: Where’d it go?

WRITE OF CENTER

ART HUMPHRIES

KENDALL GOP PRECINCT CHAIR

I’ll get to the point, but first let me set the stage. I'm sure I'll get some blowback about what I’m about to say, but it's something I think we need to face.

It’s really difficult to have a conversation about public policy if one side refuses to either do some research or simply deny the facts about issues such as immigration, social security, government spending, and more.

If that one side would do their own research, learn what is really being said and done, accept facts, then we might have adult conversations; but we can't if one side keeps rejecting those facts.

Look at some examples: Presidential candidate Kamala Harris alleged that when Donald Trump was president, he tried to end the Affordable Care Act 60 times. That wasn’t true; the number 60 referred to the number of votes taken in Congress to change the health care law.

The late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid shrugged off his amazing tale that presidential candidate Mitt Romney hadn’t paid taxes for 10 years. It was a cardinal statement of amorality, and Romney didn’t win; hence Reid’s attitude; the lie worked, so what’s not to like?

Former candidate Tim Walz said Democrats are “concerned that their economic future is so precarious it could slip out from under them. Less than half of Americans have $1,000 in savings.” he said. In fact, a Federal Reserve Bank survey found that average Americans have $8,000 in their bank accounts.

This litany of Democrats’ lies continues: “The Affordable Care Act made medical care more affordable”; or “The Inflation Reduction Act reduced inflation.”

It’s frustrating watching and reading the daily pokes from Democrats in leadership positions or centers of influence. Cynics assume all politicians are liars, but today’s Democratic Party leadership is particularly prone to dishonesty about policies great and small.

Consider the fantastic fraud that almost the entire Democratic narrative is built on. Nearly everything nasty or even illegal they’ve been doing they, in turn, accuse Donald Trump or the Republican party of doing. And it’s compounded by partisan media that don't question the falsehoods but echo them.

I think it was the Nazi propogandist Joseph Goebbels who said if you repeat a lie often enough people will believe it. It appears that the Dems are following this Nazi approach for which they’ve accused the Republicans. Should that surprise anyone?

Is it gaslighting? Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse according to “Medical News Today.” They say it occurs where an individual manipulates another person into questioning their own sanity, memories, or perception of reality.

It often occurs in abusive relationships, where the abuser creates a false narrative, leading the victim to doubt their judgments and beliefs. This insidious form of manipulation can happen in various contexts, including personal relationships and workplaces.

Well, if that’s the case, it sure hasn’t worked against our president or our party. It just ticks us off. And look what that got the Dems.

Whatever the label, it’s the devil’s playground. It’s lying.

If you’re a Democrat, do you really want to be associated with such behavior? It begs the question about civility and a sense and a standard of citizenship. Why have the Democrats let civility become swamped by fanaticism and hypocrisy?

Consider the connection between civility and citizenship. The Democrats’ leaders’ own misrepresentations and lies undermine the morality that is essential to the connection between citizenship and civility in democratic or popular governments.

To be “civil” according to the constitutional expert Charles Kesler, means to be polite, respectful, decent. It is a quality implying, especially, the restraint of anger directed toward others.

When citizens are civil to one another despite their political disagreements, they reveal that these disagreements are less important than their resolution to remain fellow citizens. Without this, citizenship would be self-contradictory and self-destructive.

What we’ve experienced from Democrat leadership is the stuff of banana republics and the phony “people’s republics” of the Communist world. So, Hill Country Democrats, is that truly what you want from your state and national leaders in their misbehavior of gaslighting, lying and fraud? At very least, please don’t echo the lies.

Let’s be civil. Art Humphries is a Kendall County Republican Precinct Chair.