Opinion | Pat Schroeder: America must move past “hate and humiliation” to honest debate
In this Nov. 3, 2020, file photo voters cast their ballots under a giant mural at Robious Elementary school on Election Day, in Midlothian, Va.This political season listening is power. While a lot is at stake in these 2022 midterm elections –control of the House and Senate and dozens of governorships— add another to your list –preserving the nation.
I was elected to Congress in the wake of Watergate. That assault on Democracy by President Richard Nixon and his henchmen now looks like a middle school lunchroom fight compared to what we are now living through. Differences worked for us, or rather we found a way to make them work for us. Our basic instinct for curiosity about the other led to conflict, but the conflicts were functional, rooted in an impulse to find solutions, to reach for common ground.Invoking appeals to unity requires work and opening our minds. The argument, protest, and organizing on behalf of one’s beliefs and political demands was — and is — the currency of a vibrant democracy.
Our public and political life became more about generating blame for problems than working together for solutions. There are no more competing ideas but more competing narratives about blame. “Messaging” has replaced problem-solving and legislative action for common sense solutions. He worked with pollsters like Frank Luntz to create a hostile vocabulary to hurl at other members across the aisle. I would often ask the parliamentarian if I had to refer to the gentleman as a gentleman if he wasn’t acting as one. The name calling is the symbol of a politics that seeks to assign blame, inflame and anger the base and hope it leads to voter turnout. Defining problems and debating solutions is non-existent.