This post is brought to you by the letter "C".  The Republic is hosting a Conversation on how we can have a Civil public discourse.  Gringo Daughter Numero Uno submitted an essay to the contest asking students how we can all get along.  She did not take my advice and go "Kobayashi Maru" by rejecting the premise of the argument--and thereby dazzle the judges with the historical perspective and critical, outside-the-box thinking that everyone says our students should have.  Instead, wiser than her father, she chose to play it safe and parrot back the concerns of those high-minded individuals who say they want more polite politics.


Speaking of political speaking, despite Rush and Keith and the myriad of anonymous and mean-spirited ding-a-lings who leave comments on web sites, we are in a pretty good place.   When my family left church yesterday the chance that we would be greeted outside with a car bomb or a mob of machete wielding neighbors was nil.  This is not true of many other parts of the world, or of our country in the past.  What is behind the decline of political violence in the U.S. would be something truly educational that we could have asked our students to explore.


The second alternative, which I did not dare suggest to Daughter #1, was to make discourse more civil by lowering its stakes.  Politics will always be a zero-sum game, and so its exercise will inevitably lead to bitter fighting over spoils.  Reduce the power and scope of government; let people turn their efforts where positive-sum solutions truly exist; and maybe politics will be a little nicer.


Juxtaposed with the essays on civil discourse was the Political Insider's quotes of the year, allowing the Reader to measure actual political discourse against the ideal.  Most of the quotes below are from D's.  Blame that on the Insider.   The quotes it chose for R's tended to be bluster or evasions, not criticisms of opponents.

"As a lifelong Arizonan, I grew up with the five C's in our state seal: copper, cotton, cattle, citrus and climate, but now we have a new C: crazy." -- House Minority Leader Chad Campbell

Saying that bills you are opposed are the result of mental instability is not Civil.  This minor and Commonplace piece of rhetoric moves the needle to 2 on the Incivility Meter.

This entire budget is one giant April Fools' joke." -- Sen. David Schapira

It's not a substantive statement, but does that make it not Civil?  It is implying that the hard work of the Republican majority on the budget was not serious and deceptive.  Maybe if the Democratic caucus had a budge that was Credible, this statement would seem more than mere Carping.  Another minor and trite statement that keeps the needle at 2.     

"As we stand here, I know the Legislature is down there working ... at least some of them." -- Gov. Jan Brewer.

Implying that the members of a co-equal branch of government are lazy sluggards moves the needle to 3.

"They're willing to crucify their constituents on the cross of ideology." -- Rep. Steve Farley

This is the second use of Crucifixion (another "C" word) in Quotes of the Year, which makes you wonder what is going on down at the Capitol, or at least inside the mind of the Insider.  Now if Mr. Farley had said "Death Camps" that would have moved the need on the Incivility meter to an 8.5 or 9.   However, referring to an ancient method of torture-execution reserved for slaves and inferior peoples is not quite so bad.  The historical allusion to the "Cross of Gold" speech is also a mitigating factor.  Needle goes to 4.