Comity

In case you haven't noticed, the level of personal, angry rancor in the national political arena has risen to unprecedented proportions. It's bad enough that the only reasonable radio show on a national scale that portrays political figures and issues dispassionately and objectively is the late late night Jim Bohannon Show. I can't turn on CNN Headline News Network late at night anymore without getting objectivity-challenged and agenda-driven Nancy Grace or Glenn Beck! I don't particularly like MSNBC's Keith Olbermann's viciousness, especially when he personally attacks irrelevant celebrities like Britney Spear or Tom Cruise, but he's also usually pretty excessive when knocking Bill O'Reilly (whom I don't care for either) as one of the "worst persons in the world". I'm usually at work when Sean Hannity is on Fox, but sometimes I accidently tune in to his radio show. The moment he determines that a caller has a different perspective on an issue from him, Mr. Hannity starts with the interruptions and name-calling. Radio is, as I alluded, almost hopeless. I had thought that Air America (when I could actually hear them on the radio) would counterbalance the meanness of right-wing hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, Neil Boortz, and Michael Savage. But, except for Randi Rhodes, the talk show hosts that they had seemed as vicious and personal as the others (and she could get a little over the top sometimes, too). The current situation is unfortunate, because the lack of civility on the part of these people obfuscates the legitimate political and social opinions that they want to persuade others to adopt, be they conservative, moderate, or liberal.

So where can one go to get a reasoned, polite discussion of the issues where dissenting opinions are respected and those expressing them are even praised by their opponents? Just step right up, ladies and gentlemen, to C-Span 2, home of the United States Senate, one of the last bastions in this country of the precious commodity known as "comity": the maintenance of a climate of mutual respect and even friendliness among advocates of conflicting agendas, even in the midst of intense debate. The speakers during Senate proceedings get pretty passionate sometimes, and every now and then somebody steps over the line and makes an insulting reference to the other side. Often, when this happens the offended party will just brush it off, but sometimes the speaker is called to account for his statements and usually ends up apologizing for them. Most of the time you can really get the pros and cons on important issues from both sides, and sometimes an issue is such that the division of opinion isn't drawn on party lines. The drawbacks of using this as a resource for information are (1) the Senate usually isn't in session, (2) when the Senate IS in session it is in quorum call (a parliamentary maneuver to temporarily pause proceedings) much of the time, and (3) except for something called "morning business", where senators can speak a specified block of time about whatever they want, the issues discussed are limited to whatever is on the agenda at the time. Still, it is refreshing to hear issues being discussed in an environment of comity, as opposed to the aforementioned hosts and networks. I'd like to be able to say that our House of Representatives shows the same level of mutual respect that I see in the Senate, but that usually isn't the case, sad to say.