No more Mister Nice Guys

Opinion: April 2, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Last week, I asked U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., the pro-life Democrat whose crucial remarks on the floor of the House were interrupted by the “baby killer!” shout, what’s driving the lack of decorum now plaguing our politics.

“I think the polarization of the two parties,” he answered. “It’s becoming acceptable.”

True. But he gave me a symptom, not a cause.

That there is such a lack of decorum and absence of civility cannot be denied. Fourteen months into a new presidency, and one week after the health-care overhaul, the country finds itself in a dangerously uncivil mood. Members of Congress are fielding death threats. Some office windows are shattered by bricks bearing messages like “No to Obama.” The brother of U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Va., came home to a severed propane gas line and a threatening letter. Objection to Missouri Rep. Russ Carnahan’s support for the health-care bill took the form of a coffin on his lawn on Wednesday.

Just a few days earlier, protesters reportedly shouted the N-word as a civil rights hero passed. Others were said to have hurled anti-homosexual epithets. U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., said he was spit upon as he walked to the Capitol. Not that the House floor would have offered any reprieve.

There, House Republicans sought to stir up protesters, not settle them down. They applauded as one protester had to be removed by security. U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, who owned up to the “baby killer!” shout, headlined the raucous performance.

Vicious frenzy

All of which leaves me wondering about what’s driving the exceedingly vitriolic climate and when it all began. There have been past spurts of incivility in the country’s history, but nothing in modern times matches today’s vicious frenzy.

Ken Gormley, a constitutional law professor at Duquesne University, just published a book whose title is a comment on the climate: “The Death of American Virtue.” The 800-page tome is the definitive history of the independent-counsel investigation into President Bill Clinton. Gormley places the funeral sometime between the launch of the Whitewater investigation and the president’s impeachment.

“This was not a shining moment for America in terms of its political battles,” Gormley said in an interview. “It is a sobering reminder that it is not a good thing when we just lose our perspective and just fight to the death among each other.”

It occurs to me that something else was gaining momentum during that era: the rise of talk radio, cable news and the Internet. And the convergence of the three against the backdrop of Monica Lewinsky and the impeachment proceedings gave rise to what we see today.

Today, that three-headed monster facilitates an artificial view of America — one in which every issue boils down to a left/right, liberal/conservative, Republican/Democratic standoff. Americans are now conditioned to choose a side and stick with it. Elected officials and candidates, all too eager to play the media game, emulate that behavior. The lack of decorum carries over from the split screen to the House floor. The cameras and microphones, of course, capture it all. And the cycle starts all over again.

Those who stoke the fires get rewarded with higher ratings fueled by the allegiance of a small but monolithic band of listeners or viewers. Concurrently, elected representatives who parrot what they hear and see experience a parallel growth in campaign contributions. In the days immediately after his “You lie!” outburst, U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., was flooded with more than $1 million in contributions. U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., meanwhile, raised $850,000 in the final quarter of 2009 alone after his “die quickly” characterization of the GOP health-care proposal.

In short, the common sense of the majority is engulfed by the fervor of a minority fringe. Any sober, substantive messages are cast as weak and unprincipled, and are drowned out by those who insist upon casting each political conflict in revolutionary terms.

That’s the real damage done when people with a microphone at their lips or on their lapels whip the knuckleheads into a frenzy. There’s less time for temperance. Critical thinking is diminished. The actions of a manic few are recorded, projected, and whispered down the lane for anyone with a radio, television, or Internet connection. The debate is cheapened, and, ultimately, the safety of our elected officials is threatened.

To paraphrase the vice president, this is a big deal.

Michael Smerconish writes a weekly column for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.