Political discourse needs to be civil

I am a retired civil servant who has lived in Livingston County for most of my adult life. I am also a registered independent voter, and have voted for both Democratic and Republican candidates in each of the last 3 elections.

This past weekend, as I was running errands, I saw a group of people gathered along Main St. in the village of Livonia, and I stopped to see what members of my community were up to. One of the women in attendance explained to me that it was International Women’s Day (many men were in the group, also). Some people were holding Women’s day signs, and a few others had signs to (peacefully) express political opinions concerning Elon Musk & DOGE, among other things.

As I spoke to the woman, a truck drove up Main St. past the crowd, and the man driving opened his windows and proceeded to honk his horn while flipping everyone off. I turned to the woman and said, “I guess that must be what he considers a contribution to public discourse.” The experience inspired me to write this guest essay.

We all need to do better keeping political discourse civil, especially when confronting opposing viewpoints. I might not have agreed with everyone at the Women’s Day gathering, but I certainly had a more positive, constructive interaction in talking with these fellow townspeople than someone driving by and ignorantly making vulgar gestures and honking disruptively.

Yet, there are things happening that are even worse than this display of vulgarity and intimidation. In recent weeks, a large number of Republican lawmakers faced hometown crowds that are very angry at President Trump for his administration’s reckless approach to slashing government programs, his issuing pardons to convicted criminals including the violent Jan. 6 rioters, drug kingpin Ross Ulbricht, and corrupt politician Rod Blagojevich, and his attacks on parts of our government literally protected by the Constitution and federal law (like birthright citizenship and agencies like USAID and the Dept. of Education). In response, GOP leaders instructed their rank and file to completely stop holding any in-person town hall meetings.

Not only is this anti-democratic, and un-American, it is plain wrong. Our elected officials of government – local, state and federal – have a moral duty to represent and include all of their constituents, not just those who may have voted for them. And, that involves talking to the people they represent. If they want to keep their job, they’ve got to show up and defend their positions. Otherwise, they are not fit for public office.

I have written to our Representative, Claudia Tenney, requesting that she make in-person appearances within her district, and have offered to volunteer my time, however I can help, to coordinate having a town hall here in Livingston County. I am still waiting for a reply.