DownloadSept. 1, 2008 issue
Candidates’ wars of words
By Bradley SiebertPage:
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The war of words in an election campaign gets everyone’s attention because these words supposedly have more impact than ordinary, daily discourse.
Bradley Siebert teaches English at Washburn University in Topeka, Kan.
But I doubt it. The words we hear every day influence us partly because we don’t think about the power they have. The commercials we constantly endure may shape our values and actions more than a sermon.
But because they’re out of the ordinary, people pay special attention to campaign messages and news coverage. Many, including some thoughtful Mennonites, find it dismaying and have validly expressed anxiety over the divisive tone of U.S. national politics in recent years.
Depending on where you live, you may already be awash in various levels of muck. It seems perfectly filthy sometimes, but here’s some perspective I’ve found.
One noteworthy feature of U.S. democracy is that it tempts us toward divisiveness. Mao Zedong and other Marxist ideologues are infamous in the West for preaching “perpetual revolution” as the heart of socialism. But our electoral cycles have the potential to cultivate a similar mindset, one that some our own political ideologues seem bent on abusing.
Some of us, then, may see this as justification for nonparticipation in political warfare. The rest of us may want to proceed with caution, preferring electoral war to the actual.
One consolation of our electoral system is that these revolutions are fought as wars of words. We don’t have to storm the castle or commit physical violence to affect change.
The obvious counterpoint is that real warfare and verbal warfare can provoke similar visceral effect. Thus, even verbal war can cause true social damage.
As reconcilers, we might be wary of such prospects in our candidates and in ourselves. Violent campaign discourse could draw us away from the values cultivated in daily discourse.
Similarly, we might be wary of discourse that glorifies and demonizes. Certainly, candidates will compare records, suggesting that theirs suits voters’ value systems better. But claims or suggestions of righteousness versus unrighteousness may accompany, or we may rush to such judgments ourselves.
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