WHY LEGITIMATE POLITICAL DISCOURSE NEEDS SOME SCHOOLING

Since I’m an expert on political discourse I’ll tell you how I became such an expert

After reading this, see if the same criteria applies to others who claim expertise in legitimate political discourse.

For me, it all started in second grade.

Experts, believable experts, need early references.

The second grade teacher in my educational process used to assemble students who didn’t turn in their homework in front of the class.

In front of friends and classmates she broke out her paddle and warmed them all up.

We all stood up there and took it.

No one broke ranks and attacked Mrs. Romani, or worked to organize an uprising against her.

Looking back, I think she was working a few personal things out on the job.

She did inspire kids to work together because we didn’t want to see our friends get a public spanking.

If we had acted out, she had back-up starting with the principal Mrs. Burke who also swung the student paddle.

Her most important ally in education was our parents

Trouble in school meant trouble at home if they got a call.

My mom was more than happy to help straighten kids out from grade school, junior high, and high school, college, and beyond.

My mom passed away a few years back and I still see things and consider, “What Would Momma Do?”

Her Hall of Fame credentials include taking kids back to the barber shop if she didn’t like the style, or cutting hair herself in a style that needed a hat for a few months.

She knew how to use golf clubs as enforcement weapons. Her dad provided a caveman club if a one wood wasn’t enough.

If she sounds violent and out of control, she wasn’t. The comforting thought is how she would have worked the people on Jan. 6.

If any of them had had her as a mother they would have known to behave themselves better.

Or else.

Learning About Legitimate Political Discourse

My expertise in the subject is bolstered by high school classes called Modern Problems.

There were two classes, one taught by the wrestling coach, the other by the varsity football line coach.

Athletes were encouraged to take their class, and here’s why:

If you screwed around in school, in any class, you had to answer to them in Modern Problems, and in after school team practice.

In other words, you became a modern problem for them to solve, and like my mom, they were happy to help

Those were my care-free 60’s and 70’s, living under the rules of the road, the laws of the land.

If either of those two teacher/coaches had unruly students plotting a classroom takeover like the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6 they would have been pounded by the teachers, the students, and their teammates.

And it would have been a learning experience.

Political Discourse In The 1974 Army

My drill sergeants in bootcamp were just about who you’d expect at the end of the Vietnam War.

They were warriors who stayed in and worked to bring the Army back and build a modern force in the all-volunteer era.

Not everyone was on the same page, however.

Two young men were rowdier than the drill sergeant liked, but he didn’t want to correct them directly.

Instead, he waited for bayonet training day. That’s when the whole platoon circles up on a dirt grinder and two guys wearing helmets and carrying pugil sticks go at it.

Two guys in the platoon gave the drill sergeant worries. They were big guys, a little too big for the time and place, and needed to be taken down.

With the wisdom and experience he’d gained leading men through hard times, the drill selected one trainee and told him, “I’ve got a problem with these two men and you’re going to solve it. I’m putting you out there against one, then the other. If you don’t drop them, I’m leaving you out there for the rest of the platoon to beat on. Do you understand me?”

The only answer was, “YES, DRILL SERGEANT.”

As a peaceful blogger for legitimate political discourse, it would have been interesting to see a bunch of pumped-up bootcamp trainees with pupil sticks turned loose on the rioters of Jan. 6.

Together, with Mrs. Romani, Mr. Abraham, and Mr. Romani, it would have been a different day outside the Capitol, and inside.

A Good Education Matters Because?

I like people smart enough to know the difference between Breaking and Entering and legitimate political discourse.

Education matters more before you do a breaking and entering on federal property.

First you learn about the law, then the consequences. That way, if you do the crime, you understand the concept of doing the time.

Political discourse took a hard right turn on the events of Jan. 6.

The resolution censuring Cheney and Kinzinger, approved at a Republican National Committee meeting in Salt Lake City, accused them of “participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”

Thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol that day, smashing windows, assaulting police officers and sending lawmakers and then-Vice President Mike Pence running for their lives after Trump made a fiery speech repeating his false claims that his election defeat was the result of widespread fraud.

As a sixty-seven year old, I believe I can tell the difference between a conversation and a riot inspired by a father figure for those with dads they don’t agree with.

“We followed our leader’s orders,” is no excuse for an attempted insurrection. They probably didn’t like being sent to their room, being told to go to bed, or eat your vegetables, either.

Friday’s vote was dramatically different in tone from a statement the Republican National Committee released the day of the attack, when it said “these violent scenes we have witnessed do not represent acts of patriotism, but an attack on our country and its founding principles.”

They weren’t ordinary citizens then, they’re not ordinary citizens now.

Four people died on Jan. 6, and a Capitol Police officer died the next day. About 140 police officers were injured, and four later died by suicide.

“The leaders of the Republican Party have made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits he tried to overturn a presidential election and suggests he would pardon Jan. 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy,” Cheney said, referring to the hundreds of Trump supporters accused of various crimes in the violent attack.

This is supposed to make things all better:

“Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger crossed a line. They chose to join Nancy Pelosi in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol,” she said. She said she “condemned violence on both sides of the aisle.”

Pugil Stick Ring Of Justice

Soft people know not to incite the sort of violence that will catch up to them. Or, should know.

It changes when soft people do get caught up. No one looks forward to getting their ass handed to them by a crowd of fringers stoked on their new daddy’s love for watching violence.

Here’s how it plays out with pugil sticks:

Dude with an overdose of self esteem puts on a helmet and picks up a padded stick and strolls out to middle of the ring and relaxes. That’s it. No protective vest or gloves, knee pads, or anything.

The challenger, who had the message to take the first two down, grabs the gear, trots out, and assumes the ready position.

On the command, both start jousting. One of them had seen Kendo stick action from visiting cultural exchange wrestlers from Japan.

Kendo guy juked and jived and landed the sort of blows that drop tough guys. He dropped his opponent.

The next guy came out more fired up with a warning, “You won’t do me like you did him.”

And he was right because he got it even worse.

Pro Tip: never take off your helmet to make a point in a pugil stick battle.

That guy got dropped. Twice.

This sort of discourse won’t happen in Congress, though something similar did happen once.

On May 22, 1856, the “world’s greatest deliberative body” became a combat zone. In one of the most dramatic and deeply ominous moments in the Senate’s entire history, a member of the House of Representatives entered the Senate Chamber and savagely beat a senator into unconsciousness.

Let’s write better history for our future.