Yesterday, yet another example of why we need civil discourse and leaders to emphasize it, occurred when an assailant broke into Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home and injured her husband, Paul. Whether someone disagrees with Pelosi’s views or even does not like Pelosi, there is no call for such action. Full stop. To be honest, I am not a huge fan of Pelosi’s, but do respect her experience and capability.
Most of my phone calls and emails over the last two weeks to elected officials is to get them to help lower the temperature in our country. I even made a few phone calls to some of the biggest culprits who throw gasoline on fires stoking more tension. The calls before then, were more pleas to act to denounce those who are continuing to fuel The Big Lie.
Yet, leaders are not being listened to by those who need to clean out their ears. The few truth tellers in the Republican Party are vilified and threatened for daring to call out the former president who has been well documented for what he has done his entire life – act in a routinely untruthful manner
To me, two of the people in leadership positions in the Republican party need to speak up and denounce such behavior. We can disagree with one another without threatening or harming people. The first is Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell. Sadly, McConnell has long been overtly skilled as a politician and with the former president has tried to play both ends against the middle. He calls him out to a point, but does not want to anger the MAGA base too much. Yet, he can at the very least say important things like I noted in the bold sentence above.
The other person is House Minority Kevin McCarthy. After saying the right things immediately following the January 6 insurrection against the Capitol, he was summoned to Mar-a-Lago and apparently read the riot act. Since then, he has been the most obsequious of sycophants daring not rile the anger of the former president. My guess is he was told if he wanted to be speaker after the mid-terms, he better play ball. I say this as McCarthy has abstained from being the leader our country and his party needs him to be.
So, if I were in one of these posts for a day, I might say the following.
-Folks, it is OK for us to disagree with the policies of our opponents, but to attack people is a non-starter. We must not conduct, promote or tolerate violence on an opposing candidate official We need to treat them the same way, we would want our candidates and incumbents treated.
-And, it is long past time to bury this election fraud BS propagated by the former president and his allies. Donald Trump lost the election and to say otherwise, is simply unproven lies. Too many people have been hurt, killed and jailed by believing this BS. It simply is not true and the former president knows it, which makes it even worse.
Of course, that is what a leader might say.
musingsofanoldfart 
Note to Readers: Please note Senators McConnell and Schumer (a Democrat) have condemned the attack on the home of Nancy Pelosi which resulted in her husband being injured. I commend them both for that.
Well said, Keith. The attack on Paul Pelosi was the most revolting thing that has been done yet in the political battles this election season. Like Susan Collins, I will not be surprised if before all is said and done one of our legislators is killed. The temperature in the nation’s ‘stove’ has been turned on high and seems just about to boil over. The attack on Paul Pelosi may just have been the beginning, especially if there is not sufficient condemnation from Republican leaders, if they continue making veiled threats such as Lindsey Graham made a few weeks ago.
Jill, thanks. I believe any elected official who makes incendiary remarks that could lead to harm needs to be censured by their party and rules of the group they serve. If they are bad enough, they should be asked to resign. There is no place for BS like that regardless of party. There are enough extremists out there to be wound up like toy soldiers. This a key reason the former president needs to be held to account for his role in the January 6 insurrection, as at a minimum he incited the riots and at a maximum he knew of and abetted the riots. Keith
I fully agree with you. Some of the things Marge Greene and Matt Gaetz have said should have gained them an escorted trip out the front door, never to return! Just yesterday I saw something on Twitter that Margie Greene was saying somebody, I can’t remember who, should be killed! That is NOT acceptable behaviour for an elected official! And yes, Trump blew the dog whistle that escalated this, but at the end of the day, it is up to each person to listen to their conscience and behave accordingly.
Agreed. To be frank, there are incumbents, opinion hosts, and campaigners who simply are not worth wasting time to read. If Greene, Gaetz, Gosar et al had an occasional productive comment, I might read more what they have to say. Alas, that is not something I need to spend time on. Keith
Reblogged this on NANMYKEL.COM and commented:
Wise words from Keith…
Many thanks Nan for the reblog. Keith
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Note to Readers II: In the absence of leaders willing to keep civil discourse and chastising those who won’t, it gives greater voice to the more strident and in some cases incendiary opinions. Folks like the G-names – Greene, Gaetz, Gosar and Gohmert – offer very little in the way of productive comments, so they need to be admonished by their own leaders when they speak so menacingly.
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Note to Readers III: I sent the following shorter version to my Republican Senators and Congressman. Please feel free to adapt and use.
“Yet another example of why we need civil discourse and leaders to emphasize it, occurred when an assailant broke into Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home and injured her husband, Paul. Whether someone disagrees with Pelosi’s views or even does not like Pelosi, there is no call for such action. Full stop. To be honest, I am not a huge fan of Pelosi’s, but do respect her experience and capability.
We need all leaders, but especially those on the Republican side, to say violence is not the answer. It is OK to disagree, but we need to do so civilly. It pains me to see the truth tellers in my former party get vilified and receive death threats because they dare to call out the former president for his deceitful and seditious actions and words. To me, folks like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger have courage and should be the folks the GOP are listening to.
Please speak out against violence and incendiary comments by some of the more strident members in the GOP. I was glad to see Senator McConnell speak out yesterday, yet I was disappointed in some of the distancing remarks and silence by others.
Thanks for your consideration of my request.“
Note to Readers IV: I did listen to Kevin McCarthy speaking out against the violence against Paul Pelosi saying he reached out to the Speaker. That is good, but it is both late and needs to continue. It is akin to offering thoughts and prayers to gun victims, but no solutions. We need continual condemnation of those who espouse violence including those whose names are known for such and more exemplars of our better behavior.