It’s that time of year again. The too early start of the campaign season. It’s inevitable as candidates line up and try to differentiate themselves. My biggest concern is the extreme rhetoric, what it has done to us as voters and as citizens in a country that I still consider the best in the world.
Frank Hibbard [ City of Clearwater ]
As some of you know, I served almost four full terms on the Clearwater City Council, three of which were as mayor. I was appointed after two terms as mayor in 2012 and sat for eight years before winning re-election in 2020. It was only eight years, less than a decade, but when I returned to public office, a thing stood out: the level of civility had changed drastically, and not for the better. I tried to put my finger on why. I have several thoughts, and a few challenges that I pose to myself and to you.
I believe the first factor is the rise of cable news and the so-called 24-hour “news” cycle. When I was growing up, I watched the news almost every night with my parents. We were not a network family. We will see Walter Cronkite followed by Dan Rather on CBS, Peter Jennings on ABC and Tom Brokaw on NBC. We also tuned into the MacNeil/Lehrer report on PBS. None of these broadcasts veered far from the political center. Now you can choose your taste: Fox News, MSNBC or CNN. We feed ourselves the message we want and rarely listen to the other side of any argument. It could also be argued that we don’t have enough news to fill a 24-hour cycle, and so what we call news is often opinion, demonizing the other side.
The second huge change from 2012 to when I returned to public office in 2020 is social media and the internet. Sure, the internet existed before 2012, but we’ve become more dependent on it and it’s facilitated widespread social media addiction. We joke, “It must be true, it was on the Internet,” but in reality, we know that much of what we read is fake or definitely tainted. We need to read with a more skeptical eye and check multiple sources before espousing what we think are facts.
Social media, on the other hand, has very few real supports and has empowered people to take down groups or individuals from the comfort of their family room couch. The vitriol found online from people who have never met you and don’t understand the issues is alarming.
When I first decided to run for office, I was asked to think of the worst thing I’d ever done, and I was willing to splash it on the front page of the newspaper if a reporter found out. The presumption in this question was that the “worst” was actually true. Now, it’s common for people to throw out half-baked lies and notions on social media, without even trying to get to the real truth.
Abraham Lincoln is often incorrectly credited with the quote by Minister Jenkin Lloyd Jones: “No foreign enemy can ever despoil this country, however much they may want to storm our shores with shells or sink our battleships, nations do not die by invasion, they die. of internal rot”. This wisdom holds. As a country we need to protect ourselves from implosions. How do we do that? I would encourage you to listen to a radio show or podcast that you don’t normally tune in to or read something that otherwise you might miss it. Get on the other side, challenge your own beliefs. Talk to a person of the opposite political persuasion. You can learn that they don’t have horns and that they have a reasonable basis for their beliefs. No I’m talking about compromising core values, but understanding that we all come from different backgrounds and experiences, and that informs our beliefs.
We certainly have to expect more from our political leaders. They serve us, not the other way around. While I’m not hopeful that campaigns will tone down the rhetoric, we can control civility within ourselves. Remember, after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 we were united for a while and allowed ourselves a level of grace. Whether you subscribe to religious beliefs or not, a real solution comes from the words of Jesus: “Love others as you love yourself.” If put into practice, this advice would solve many of our conflicts. I long for a country that is not rotting internally, my children and grandchildren. I hope you too.
Frank Hibbard is the former mayor of Clearwater.
