Extremist Talk and Blithering Outrage

by John Lindstrom
Gongwer News Service
April 2, 2010

What is the etiquette when one is in the dentist’s chair and the dentist is peering down one’s gullet, impervious and intimidating behind the mask, various sharp tools in hand, all the while muttering about “Obamacare taking over everything…won’t have insurance this time next year…socialists everywhere, socialists taking over the country…guess the firing squads will be next…remember Castro? When he took over, 500 of them lined up in front of a ditch and machine-gunned down…guess won’t be too much longer before we get that.”

Does one take that moment to say, “Oh don’t be daft?” Or considering the nearness of sharp tools to soft tissue, merely mutter a non-committal grunt?

The ongoing anguish following passage of the national health care law continues, and it is maddening and amusing and infuriating all at once. On Facebook the fulminating from opponents, including Michigan legislators, parried and countered by the righteous sniggering of supporters, always provides a good excuse to enjoy a stiffening beverage.

Rep. Dave Agema (R-Grandville), for example, has in various Facebook posts called congressional and administration Democrats crooks, said the health care law will trigger a double-dip recession, and castigated news reporting on the bill, saying he felt like he was in Russia and reading Pravda. Compared to other comments from others with apparently higher blood pressures, Mr. Agema is a courtly gentleman.

Add to all this the arrests of the Hutaree crew down in Lenawee and Hillsdale counties, however, and the ongoing anguish is a bit worrying.

Now the Hutaree hysterics are a different breed of nutcase altogether, aiming, as is alleged, to do their bit to precipitate the end days by starting a war on police, presuming the successful slaughter of cops will inspire the mass to take up arms against government and, what…release the pure red heifer? Raise up the temple walls? Hear the trumpet sound across the heavens? (Who teaches these guys their strategy anyway? And does the scripture “I shall come as a thief in the night” mean nothing to these endtiming ijits? And on a purely parochial complaint, hows come these guys get busted and everyone remembers the Michigan Militia and the Nichols boys and says Michigan should make anti-government wackiness a growth industry? Timothy McVeigh hailed from the otherwise charming town of Lockport, New York; why not locate a fruitcake stand there? And Idaho, remember Justus Township, remember the Unabomber…oh cripes, he went to UM. Never mind.)

But with phoned threats to members of Congress, and gas lines being cut at homes, and bricks flying through the Livingston County Republican office, and the utterly bizarre suggestion that large numbers of Americans consider President Barack Obama the anti-christ, one could be excused for nervously wondering if the arrest of the Hutaree howlies could inspire a less balanced critic to see the passage of health care as the sign to start the tribulation.

Extremist talk and blithering outrage are part of our national heritage. After all, John Adams’ campaign warned that if Thomas Jefferson were elected president in 1800, old men’s heads would be raised on pikes and women would be raped in the streets with impunity.

No party is exempt from pronouncing outrage. The same Republicans and conservatives who today scream about socialist takeovers and holding sales on brownshirts were just a few years ago howling treason at Democrats and liberals who opposed the war in Iraq and called then President George W. Bush a fascist. (Note to both: talk to somebody who lived either in a socialist or fascist country, and that person will likely say you are out of your mind when you say the U.S. is going either way.)

Even within factions, levels of outrage exist and turn on each other. Why does U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) have to worry about a tea-party upstart in his home state? What angers campaign aides for Attorney General Mike Cox when fellow Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Snyder (who has called for repeal of the health care law) suggests Mr. Cox shouldn’t spend the state’s money on a lawsuit challenging the measure? What in the so-far more aggressively rightist campaign of Rep. Justin Amash (R-Kentwood) worries supporters of U.S. Rep. Vern Ehlers (R-Grand Rapids) whose favored candidate to succeed him is the unshakeable conservative Sen. Bill Hardiman (R-Kentwood)?

Even so, there’s nothing to worry about in the end, right? We are all letting off various levels of steam as we have for years and years and years, so there is nothing to worry about, right? We’re all on the same team in the end, and we will all pull together and we’re just loosening our collars and stretching our tonsils, right?

We can hope so. Yet the growing inability to civilly disagree, to even engage in argument without reducing the dialogue to playground semantics, and to be unwilling to consider opposing points and look at broader context is both depressing and worrying.

There was a time when it was our civic duty to at least hear the other guy out, as anyone old enough to remember Jack Kirkpatrick and Shana Alexander on 60 Minutes can attest. They each made their argument. Nobody talked over the other. Viewers favored one or the other, but they at least understood that they needed to listen.

But technology and its ability to segment and control idealistic markets, combined with political tactics and strategies aimed at isolating and controlling message, make the ability to reasonably argue and civilly disagree harder and harder.

Politics is rapidly devolving to an uncorked bar fight, and once punches get thrown worse things can happen. The western democracies, be they in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Oceania or Africa, exist on the concept of civil disagreement, on mutual respect even in disagreement.

There are countries where the worst is expected and treated as just the daily fare of political business. For example, in 2008 two Nigerian journalists were interviewing then Michigan Republican chair Saul Anuzis about the upcoming election.

Will this be an intense campaign, they asked Mr. Anuzis. He nodded his head, and said, yes, this should be a very intense campaign, and it will be very intense in Michigan.

The Nigerians nodded in understanding, and then asked completely innocently: and how many people do you expect to be killed during the campaign? Mr. Anuzis nearly fell out of his chair in astonishment. It was an absurd question, here, but clearly not in Nigeria.

Practicing moderate extremism, tolerant outrage, friendly fulminations, topped off with a communal brew, is a virtue we should all remember.

Recall that from the wild excesses of the 1800 campaign, Adams and Jefferson again became stalwart, passionate friends and the nation was better for it. And that is something to sink one’s teeth into.

John Lindstrom is publisher of Gongwer News Service. For nearly 50 years in Michigan, Gongwer News Service has provided independent, comprehensive, accurate and timely coverage of issues in and around Michigan’s government and political systems. For subscription information, including a free trial, visit Gongwer online.