H.D.S. Greenway: Regional Divides
[HDS Greenway leads the Opinion and nalysis section for GlobalPost. He has been a journalist for 50 years and recently retired from the Boston Globe after a distinguished career.]
When Representative Addison Graves Wilson of South Carolina, known to his colleagues and constituents as Joe, yelled “you lie” at President Obama during his address to Congress, it started a national debate on public civility and the coarsening of American culture. Talk show after talk show raised the issue. It seemed to crown a summer of ever more vociferous criticisms of the president.
Liberals and minorities denounced Joe Wilson. Former President Jimmy Carter alleged that racism might be involved in the increasing din of anti-Obama rhetoric. Conservatives cried foul, saying that criticizing a president was American as apple pie, and that racist motives should not be alleged.
Wilson apologized to the president, but could not avoid rebuke in Congress. Obama, as is his wont, accepted Wilson’s apology and decided not to ascribe racist motives — saying that the role of government was what divided left from right in America.
Be that as it may, there can be no doubt about the ever polarizing effect of political life in America, and many look back at the less partisan, more compromising days of a generation ago with nostalgia.
But political discourse is sweet today compared to what it was in the 19th century. Consider the case of Preston Brooks, also of South Carolina, who beat his colleague, Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, half to death on the floor of the United States Senate.
On May 19, 1856, Senator Sumner, an anti-slavery Republican, made a stinging speech denouncing all southerners who applauded the violence then going on in Kansas over whether or not Kansas would become a slave state.
An incensed Senator Brooks entered the senate chamber on May 22, approached Sumner sitting at his desk, and said: “Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech twice over carefully,” and accused Sumner of having insulted both South Carolina and one of his relatives. As Sumner tried to rise, Brooks beat him to the ground with his cane. Brooks kept beating him, even as Sumner tried to hide under his desk. Not until the cane broke did Brooks leave the blood-stained Senate floor.
Read entire article at NYT
When Representative Addison Graves Wilson of South Carolina, known to his colleagues and constituents as Joe, yelled “you lie” at President Obama during his address to Congress, it started a national debate on public civility and the coarsening of American culture. Talk show after talk show raised the issue. It seemed to crown a summer of ever more vociferous criticisms of the president.
Liberals and minorities denounced Joe Wilson. Former President Jimmy Carter alleged that racism might be involved in the increasing din of anti-Obama rhetoric. Conservatives cried foul, saying that criticizing a president was American as apple pie, and that racist motives should not be alleged.
Wilson apologized to the president, but could not avoid rebuke in Congress. Obama, as is his wont, accepted Wilson’s apology and decided not to ascribe racist motives — saying that the role of government was what divided left from right in America.
Be that as it may, there can be no doubt about the ever polarizing effect of political life in America, and many look back at the less partisan, more compromising days of a generation ago with nostalgia.
But political discourse is sweet today compared to what it was in the 19th century. Consider the case of Preston Brooks, also of South Carolina, who beat his colleague, Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, half to death on the floor of the United States Senate.
On May 19, 1856, Senator Sumner, an anti-slavery Republican, made a stinging speech denouncing all southerners who applauded the violence then going on in Kansas over whether or not Kansas would become a slave state.
An incensed Senator Brooks entered the senate chamber on May 22, approached Sumner sitting at his desk, and said: “Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech twice over carefully,” and accused Sumner of having insulted both South Carolina and one of his relatives. As Sumner tried to rise, Brooks beat him to the ground with his cane. Brooks kept beating him, even as Sumner tried to hide under his desk. Not until the cane broke did Brooks leave the blood-stained Senate floor.