A Call for Civility
With the bull's-eye on its chest, the right wing suddenly wants to play nice
by Phil Ashford
I can remember the first time I saw an “Impeach Clinton” bumper sticker. It was on the back of a pickup truck parked on Union Street in April 1993—barely three months into the new administration. Tough crowd, I thought.
In retrospect, I realize it was one of the early manifestations of a snowballing nastiness in politics that ultimately included the impeachment of Bill Clinton, the year of the “Angry White Guys” in politics, the rise of Rush Limbaugh, the rise and fall of Newt Gingrich, and the advent of the Republican Congress.
Through all of that, Republicans stoked and benefited from the political and commercial business of manufacturing hard feelings. They weren’t alone, of course, but they were much louder, had many more outlets, and were much more effective. There is no Democratic equivalent to Limbaugh, spewing a jaundiced political outlook day in and day out.
But something is changing. After all these years of listening to the malignant, vitriolic symphony of right-wing talk radio and cable TV shoutfests, the chorus of toadies is afraid that with Republicans in control of the White House, Congress, and (effectively) the Supreme Court, they’re going to be on the receiving end of all the foregoing venom. So now, they think it should stop.
In other words, they can dish it out, but they can’t take it. Through the whole clamorous spectacle of the right-wing assault on the political process, two characteristics stand out.
The first is paranoia, which seems remarkable in a period of such great success for the right. Since the election of Ronald Reagan, greater respect for market-based solutions, military strength, and a declining government role have very much dominated the shape of the political debate. The Democratic Party has been tugged to the right, and Republicans claim that President Bill Clinton lived off their ideas. Instead of taking yes for an answer, the right sees America on the brink of destruction at the hands of the “liberals.”
Moreover, the press is seen as engaging in complex conspiracies to manipulate the news and deprive the public of a sufficiently jaundiced viewpoint. Never mind that the reviled national press is at least free of the deliberate dishonesty of talk radio. Never mind that academic studies repeatedly showed that Al Gore got much less favorable press treatment than Republican rival George W. Bush.
The other salient characteristic is a lack of self-awareness. Anyone who listens to the talk-radio legions with an open mind will be struck by their lack of doubt about their own virtue and a malevolent unwillingness to see the validity of parallel arguments from the other side.
Typical of this was a call I got from a reader who, in making the reasonable point that he wasn’t evil or stupid just because he didn’t support an income tax, added that this was a democracy in which the majority ruled. I asked him then about the presidential election, not that it had anything to do with anything, but because I just felt like sticking the needle in. Instead of ruefully acknowledging his side’s good fortune in an aberrant outcome, he instead tried to convince me that Gore’s half-million vote advantage was a statistical myth.
But now that the political seasons have changed, it’s clear that many on the paranoid right are not ready for the accountability that goes with responsibility.
There was a considerable echo in George W. Bush’s inaugural speech, wherein he gave the most pedestrian performance since Jimmy Carter opted to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. Bush was very heavy on the need for civility since the bull’s-eye for political nastiness is pretty clearly painted on his chest now.
Now that he’s in office, Bush, of course, is for bipartisanship—which generally can be understood as a call for the opposition to stop disagreeing with him.
Anyone with a memory will recall the welcome Clinton got: The bombastic Limbaugh opened his TV show with credits mimicking the Iran hostage crisis news specials that grew into the Nightline series. The credits read, “America Held Hostage: Day One of the Raw Deal.” So much for the honeymoon.
But now that the political landscape has changed, it will be interesting to see how the various Republican radio personalities handle the challenges of the coming season. One suspects the solution will be to declare Hillary Clinton the most powerful political institution in the nation.
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