After less than 2 hours of sleep following last Tuesday’s unforgettable council meeting, I got my kids in the car and hopped on a plane to Cleveland to visit my family. Still there, but just now getting to the social media aftermath. And it’s ugly.
I understand why people are frustrated. But calling some of my colleagues spineless, cowards, corrupt, and bought by the oil industry because you disagreed with their vote is unfortunate. A vote, by the way, that I find wholly reasonable and defensible – even though, at the end of the night I disagreed. And now there are calls for boycotts of businesses and recall elections?
Why do we insist on importing such ways of reacting and talking from the poisonous political rhetoric of DC?
Disagree. Get mad. Be passionate. But channel that into democratic civic virtues: debate, form an argument, sit down with your council member, write a letter, vote against someone, run for office, or maybe even dare to learn from someone you vehemently disagree with.
But the thought that we only want to do commerce and hang around in the same businesses with those who hold the same political opinions as us appears to me to be the furthest thing from the democratic spirit. In fact, it’s the most dangerous thing to a vibrant democracy.
I have the utmost respect for my council colleagues, even and especially when I wholly disagree with them. They work hard, they love Denton, and we all found ourselves faced with a difficult decision on an enormously complex issue with far-reaching consequences on either side.
I warned of the problem of political fundamentalism in this post just before Thanksgiving. I continue to think its presence in a city is much more toxic than a 100 gas wells.
I leave you with a scene from the second season of West Wing. Ainsley Hayes, a Republican talking head, was just invited to join the Democratic Bartlett White House, in part because of her stunning performance dressing down Senior White House Advisor Sam Seaborn on a recent cable talk show. After spending a day inside the White House with an administration that she was earlier hired to criticize at every turn, she returned to her Republican friends who were eager to hear about just how bad her political enemies were. Check out her response and consider our’s…