Political Discourse in a World of Hecklers

It's all over the blogosphere by now. Twitter is atweet with messages about it. I even saw a website for it. Last night was President Obama's highly anticipated speech before a joint session of Congress. Amongst all the eloquence and rhetoric that our president is known for, two words have apparently stolen the show. "You Lie," shouted by Representative Joe Wilson from South Carolina in response to the President's promise that universal healthcare will not be extended to people who are in this country illegally. Mr. Wilson has formally apologized to Rahm Emanuel who accepted the apology on Mr. Obama's behalf, but the scenario speaks to the times and the division on this issue and has me wondering about political discourse in a world of hecklers.



First things first. I want to make crystal clear that I am not upset at Representative Wilson's choice to exercise his First Amendment Rights, nor his dissent with the President's ideas. I respect and value the fact that we can, and should do these things in a democracy, and in most circumstances I would be the first to applaud the questioning of authority.

The problem I have is that Mr. Wilson was just making an outburst. There was no argument, no logic and really, no forum for objections. That is what makes it disrespectful. It does not matter if you agree or disagree with the President, the office is one handed over by the voters of the United States and demands respect. The military salutes the President no matter who he or she may be. Not to mention it is just plain rude to interrupt someone who is giving a speech. There is a time and a place for dissent and questioning and I fully support such discourse! The middle of a speech is the wrong time and place.

As I've said, I fully agree with the ideas that we should question and even harbor a healthy sense of doubt over our elected officials, whether or not we agree with them. It keeps us our toes and helps make sure the people we elected to represent us are doing so and have to answer to someone. I am all for forums and debates and town hall discussions to dissect and understand the policies the elected are supporting or opposing. But really, where are these conversations? Lately, we have had nothing but shouting from both sides. What start as attempts to impart information become shouting matches where people leave bitter and more embattled than ever as opposed to open and willing to work. The healthcare issue is a serious one and requires some serious conversation, and we have had little to none on a national level, and probably less on a personal level.

The yelling matches and the heckling have to stop. This issue cannot be solved by the left alone or the right alone; I cannot think of a single political issue that can, or has been. We need an honest an open conversation with each other and with our representatives. Let's stop name calling, fear-mongering and over-simplifying each other. Those on the left are not socialists trying to take away your individual freedoms, and those on the right are not special interest bellboys with dollar signs in their eyes. Both sides want to do something to help resolve this crisis, but we need to talk to each other to fully understand what and how.

Let's have spirited conversations if we have to, let's raise our voices if we have to, but let's do it civilly and over the right channels: blogs, tweets, coffee shops and dinner tables. Not during speeches, not bombastically with nothing but a T.V. camera or a radio mic, and let's try to discuss this without shouting each other down or disrupting the flow of information.

The heckling has already hi-jacked the conversation. I'm blogging about a distraction from the speech not the speech itself; someone made a website making fun of Joe Wilson instead of a website about the finer notes of President Obama's plan. We need to just let the issue of who yelled what die and move on to talking about the issues.

Credit to the New York times for the back story to this blog.