The National Institute for Civil Discourse opened yesterday at the University of Arizona. The institute is described as such:
a nonpartisan center for debate, research, education and policy about civility in public discourse.
Don’t you think people likely know how to mind their manners in discussion but just choose not to do so? We have a swath of the population that believes talking loudly (shouting) and aggressively (see here) makes up for research or fact. So unless we’re going to have an Information Czar and related department drawing funds from the taxpayer like blood from a wound so as to arm the public with information, I honestly don’t see the point.
It was created in the aftermath of the Jan. 8 shootings in the city where six people were killed and 13 injured, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).
Wait – we, well, someone created a center to focus on the thing that actually had nothing to do with what happened in Arizona? As opposed to creating a center devoted to raising awareness about that which truly did cause what happened in Arizona: unchecked mental problems and a apparent lackadaisical (and highly partisan) police chief who ignored the warnings – and a campus who should have done more to warn the public? (Sidenote: This entire exercise in “civility” seems like an unnecessary and fruitless experiment to somehow falsify the aesthetic behind Joe Mitchell’s iconic “Don’t Swear Man.”)
Former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush will serve as honorary chairmen of a new center at the University of Arizona that will focus on civility in political debate …
I’m sorry, but this is ridiculous. Really, messieurs Clinton and Bush?
Former Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor and former Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) will serve as honorary co-chairmen. Board members will include former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright; Kenneth M. Duberstein, chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan; Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren; Trey Grayson, director of Harvard University’s Institute of Politics; and former representative Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.).
Wow. I’m super confident upon seeing this all-star list, with the exception of Van Susteren.
The center will be funded with private donations, and $1 million has already been raised, said DuVal, who will head the working board of the institute, which is his brainchild. The institute plans to organize workshops and conferences in Tucson, Washington and elsewhere nationwide, and will bring together leaders from across the political spectrum to develop programs to promote civil discourse.
“Our country needs a setting for political debate that is both frank and civil,” Bush said in a statement.
I didn’t expect such a short memory from a guy whose two terms were plagued by BUSHHITLER and Bush Derangement Syndrome.
I’m debating with myself whether or not there exists offense in the possibility of an unspoken premise that somehow both sides have been misbehaving. I would have given two thumbs up to any statement from any conservative that sounded anything like: “Progressives need to stop acting like barbarians and beating black people in parking lots and comparing budget cuts to gassing Jews.” Can that be the new center’s motto? I kid! Forgive my incivility.
The news surrounding the center talks about civil debate. Debate infers that there are two sides involved and that both sides, somehow, have failed at some Emily Post’s Guide to Talking Politics rule, thus the necessitation of the institute. I reject any suggestion that incivility in politics is something new. I also reject the unspoken suggestion that there are two guilty parties responsible for rude discourse, as would any person not on the Soros payroll who hasn’t lived under a rock and has seen some of the insanity coming from progressives.
Some examples of New Tone, just to drive that point home:
‘Racist!’: Columbia Univ. Students Heckle Wounded Iraq War Hero
Pictorial: Protest Saturday in Wisconsin
Top 10 Examples Of Liberal Hate
Wisconsin Crowd Shouts Down Guest During Live Interview on Fox
Union Protester Arrested For Trying to Sabotage Tea Party Sound System
Sound Bite For the Day: Prog Talker Threatens Andrew Breitbart
What the Media Won’t Show: Union Protestors Carry Signs Threatening Tea Party Rape
Soros Compares Rupert Murdoch to Hitler (Media Matters silent)
Scott Walker death threats:
One of the institute’s first events will be a conference with members of the media, foundations, academic institutions, government and corporations to discuss advancing the national conversation about civil discourse, said Meredith Hay, provost of the University of Arizona.
Is this just the vaguest thing you’ve ever heard? “We’re going to call a conference and have a discussion about having discussions.”
Although the Tucson shootings were not linked to public discourse, she said, they “created a space for us to think about civil discourse.”
Facepalm.
Let me tell you, when a mentally disturbed individual gets off scot-free after stalking a congresswoman for two years and when the police chief doesn’t operate his department to maximize reaction against this individual when tips come in, and the guy goes off and massacres people, the first thing I think of is manners.
No National Institute for the Non-politicization of Sheriffs’ Departments?
No National Institute for Awareness of Mental Issues?
No National Institute for Combatting Misconceptions About Gun Laws?
Missing the point, again and again. High fives, National Institute for Civil Discourse! Civil discourse isn’t achieved by ignoring the root of the problem for peace and forced sanitization isn’t true civility. It’s a lie, and if we’re going to talk civility, would not lying be the most offensive?