Friday, February 10th 2017
http://wjla.com/news/nation-world/the-state-of-civil-discourse-in-the-trump-era
The protests against Donald Trump haven’t stopped since the he was sworn into office three weeks ago, with some activists resorting to violence and other demonstrators finding local targets for their outrage at congressional town hall meetings across the country.
The quote often attributed to Voltaire is worth revisiting as political tensions and emotions run high across the country. “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
A protest organized by the Washington Teacher’s Union on Friday raised questions about the fate of public discourse, when the newly confirmed Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was physically blocked from entering a D.C. school. After finally making it inside the building DeVos met with the leaders of the public school to hear their concerns.
DeVos issued a statement after the meeting affirming her “shared commitment to strengthening public education.” Opponents of the new Education Secretary have alleged she will take down America’s public school system and replace it with for-profit charter schools.
“I respect peaceful protest, and I will not be deterred in executing the vital mission of the Department of Education. No school door in America will be blocked from those seeking to help our nation’s schools,” DeVos said.
Before going home for their first round of town hall meetings and listening sessions, Republican congressmen got together in a closed-door meeting on Tuesday, as House GOP warned members that they should take new security precautions after a handful of town hall meetings devolved into chaos over the weekend. The leadership warned members to be prepared with emergency exits from speaking venues, and solid, dead-bolted doors on their district offices.
“The message was: One, be careful for security purposes. Watch your back. And two, be receptive. Honor the First Amendment, engage, be friendly, be nice,” said Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker (R-N.C.). “Because it is toxic out there right now. Even some of the guys who have been around here a lot longer than I have, have never seen it to this level.”
On Thursday night, Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz was met by thousands of angry protesters at his town hall meeting in Cottonwood Heights. Demonstrators inside the event held up signs and peppered the congressman with questions on public land, the environment, and Trump’s policies.
The crowd drowned out the House Government Oversight Committee chairman with cheers when one woman called on Chaffetz to investigate Donald Trump’s conflicts of interest. At other times in the event, protesters shut down the congressman from answering questions with booing and cheers.
According to KUTV reporter Chris Jones, the Chaffetz event was not advertised by the congressman, but a number of left-leaning groups like the Wasatch Socialist Party and other promoted the events on Facebook, and the majority of the attendees tended to “lean more to the left.”
The scene in Utah was relatively tame compared to Rep. Tom McClintock’s (R-Calif.) meeting last weekend that erupted in chaos and prompted the GOP security discussion. The northern California crowd became so rowdy that police stepped in to shut down the event. Officers had to escort the California congressmen out of the packed theater out of fear for his safety.
In a floor speech on Tuesday, McClintock explained that while many protesters at the event were peaceful opponents of Trump, there was “a well-organized element that came to disrupt,” and disrupt in a way that he hadn’t seen in other protests movements, like the Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street.
“The radical left seeks not to persuade their fell citizens by reason but rather to impose its views by bullying, insulting, intimidating, and as in Berkeley, by physically attacking their fellow citizens,” he charged. “This is not a tactic likely to change minds but if it persists, it could tear down the very institutions of democracy that have served us so well for so long.”
The Berkeley incident McClintock referred to was the scheduled speech by alt-right star of Breitbart News, Milo Yiannopoulos. The speaker was scheduled to address students on campus, but the event was called off by UC Berkeley officials after violent protests erupted, resulting in six reported injuries and more than $100,000 in property damage.
While opponents of the alt-right activist argued that his writings and speech are offensive, hateful and bigoted, it is difficult to equate incendiary speech to a structure fire on campus, especially UC Berkeley, known to be cradle of the 1960’s free speech movement.
The university’s college Republican’s, who initially invited the speaker, responded to the cancellation of the event declaring, “The Free Speech Movement is dead … It is tragic that the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement is also its final resting place.”
Yiannopoulos responded to the incident on Facebook saying the incident demonstrated that “the Left is absolutely terrified of free speech and will do literally anything to shut it down.”
President Trump weighed in on Twitter suggesting the university should have its federal funding cut for failing to protect free speech. Many of those defending the protest argued that Yiannopolous’ views crossed the line and constituted hate-speech or incitement.
On the left and the right there is near universal agreement that protected free speech and peaceful protest are essential components of American civil discourse, but now some are questioning whether it is appropriate to oppose another person’s ideas with violence. It’s a slippery slope.
Are Yiannapoulos’s ideas so dangerous that they had to be shut down with violence at UC Berkeley? Was the attack on a Trump supporter at a Portland, Oregon airport protest against the travel ban appropriate? When the far-right activist Richard Spencer was sucker-punched by a protester on Inauguration Day, the internet asked “is it ok to punch a Nazi?”
“We have to have public discourse in a way where ideas can be exchanged, whether you agree with them or not,” said Jason Pye, director of public policy and legislative affairs with the libertarian FreedomWorks organization. “That is why we ahve a free exchange of ideas and discussion and thought, let the better argument prevail,” he said.
Even if a person finds the views of their opponents abhorrent, the First Amendment of the Constitution defends both popular speech and unpopular speech.
“Shutting down people because they are saying things we find distasteful, I don’t think that’s healthy,” Pye said, adding that in many of the cases he has seen, it has been far-left activists “shutting down discourse.”
After an election where emotions are running high and some groups of Americans are fearful about their safety, their status as citizens, and their ability to practice their religion, engaging in civil discourse is a challenge, including for public officeholders.
Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) providing one example of how to handle a packed room of angry protesters during a town hall event on Thursday in Grand Rapids. In a room of 600 mostly liberal activists booing and shouting at the congressman to keep Obamacare, overturn the immigration ban, and oppose other Trump policies, Amash stood his ground. He explained his positions, which were often at odds with the Trump administration, he took questions, and promised to schedule his next town hall in a larger venue.
“Most of my colleagues, unfortunately, go with the flow; they want to stick to their comfort zones in many cases,” Amash told Politico after the event. “This doesn’t make me uncomfortable. I like to be here, hearing the different perspectives. I’m not afraid of my positions.”
A number of congressmen have decided not to hold town hall meetings because of real or perceived threats of violence, or “phone it in” with telephone town halls. But Pye emphasized the importance of engagement both from lawmakers and the public.
For congressman, he advised them to be independent and sincere. “Don’t get caught backing proposals from a person just because they have the same party letter after their name, whether it’s an R or a D.”
For activists, he urged them to take a breath. “Absolutely, engage you congressman, but calm down. If you don’t calm down somebody is going to do something stupid.”
