This Election Season, Cast Vote For Civility

The political persuasions and personalities of Rep. George Nethercutt, John Roskelley and the Rev. Robert Spitzer couldn’t be more different.

Nethercutt has built a political career as a quiet, conservative Republican who is slow to anger and only says “gosh” when he gets there.

Spokane County Commissioner John Roskelley, a Democrat, is strong-minded, tight-lipped and willing to write a testy letter when he hears something disagreeable.

Father Bob, as he is affectionately known at Gonzaga University, loves to talk. His voice rises and his arms extend whenever GU’s president is out captivating a crowd.

These three men have styles as varied as a spring garden. But they embrace a shared belief that civility should rule in public life.

Their cause should be ours.

Republican or Democrat, liberal-minded or conservative, if you’re itching for a good fight this political season, join the cause of civility.

Join now, before the big bucks start rolling out the negative TV ads, before the bilious venom spills from the talk radio airwaves, before name-calling and personal attacks drown out all the rest.

Recent scientific studies on the effects of negative advertising and negative political campaigning draw some discouraging conclusions.

Negative campaign themes and negative ads sink in more quickly to the public’s mind.

And, once they have polluted the waters, negative campaigns and ads turn off many people who once paid attention to politics and reduce the number of those who actually vote.

These results were published in December by Adam Simon and Shanto Iyengar in the American Political Science Review. “Negative advertising reduced turnout and eroded confidence in the electoral process and … kept many voters from the polls,” they reported.

Such campaigns are particularly successful with people with low incomes and less education. For these groups, who often aren’t exposed to the candidates themselves and rely on TV for their information, negative ads are viewed as good sources of information even when they are misleading or false. Against this backdrop, it is all the more important to notice public officials who don’t resort to name-calling and negativity.

Nethercutt, Roskelley and Spitzer have largely won popular support by sticking to the higher ground of politics.

This suggests that negativity, while often successful, isn’t the only way to win. But you have to be adept at civility. It must not become a synonym for tepid platitudes or spinelessness.

Spitzer’s defense of Gonzaga University’s decision to deny Planned Parenthood representatives a forum to speak on the Catholic university’s campus offers a stunning example of how unyielding civility can be as powerful as mudslinging.

Spitzer’s words are those of an impassioned but polite defender. His weapons are logic, ethics and a commitment to higher purpose.

Commissioner Roskelley recently offered a different commitment to civil discourse.

Sitting as chairman of the county commissioners, Roskelley a few days ago announced he would no longer allow citizens to use the public forum portion of the meetings as a name-calling session.

“I think it is abuse of the system when we allow people to come in and verbally abuse others,” Roskelley said. “I won’t allow personal attacks. What we’re elected to do is try to address problems, and we can do without the personal attacks.”

In December, Roskelley penned a thoughtful essay on the value of civil discourse following the riotous World Trade Organization demonstrations in Seattle. “For local control to succeed, all citizens must be able to participate in an open and democratic public setting,” he wrote.

Roskelley warned that in many communities, the atmosphere of public discussion has soured to a point where many people and institutions “now find themselves victims of verbal and physical harassment.”

The result, Roskelley noted, is “to quell meaningful public dialogue within communities and limit their understanding of important current events.”

How ironic, then, that Roskelley last week was personally attacked because of his desire to not allow personal attacks on county employees or others during commissioner meetings.

George Nethercutt’s recent whipping by the U.S. Term Limits group is perhaps the saddest example of what happens when negative advertising overruns thoughtful discussion.

Nethercutt was elected partly on the pledge that he would only serve three terms.

Now, three terms later, he has decided to run for a fourth. That decision needs to be explained and will be a campaign issue. But it not a sign, as the attack ads by U.S. Term Limits suggest, that Nethercutt somehow has sold out.

Term Limits has run 265 TV ads in the past few weeks that trash Nethercutt’s reputation.

The ads are unfair, factually inaccurate, and don’t get to the key political question, which is whether Nethercutt is an effective legislator for his district.

Negativity kills politics by squeezing out discussion of ideas, visions for the future, and leadership.

These issues really matter. To discuss them requires a civil tongue before all else.