New rule: Avoid dispensing non-political compliments to political people, no matter how sincere your sentiments may be.
Charles Davis, dean of the University of Georgia’s journalism school, apologized on Friday for a tweet he posted earlier in the week about the state’s Republican nominee for governor, Brian Kemp. “I’d like to apologize to anyone offended by my tweet shout out to Brian Kemp…I’ve read and learned so much from you all and will endeavor to be more thoughtful,” Davis wrote.
I’d like to apologize to anyone offended by my tweet shout out to Brian Kemp. It was ill-timed and poorly written. I’ve read and learned so much from you all and will endeavor to be more thoughful.
— Charles N Davis (@GradyDeanUGA) July 27, 2018
What unsavory post warranted so serious an apology? Davis, as it turns out, had the audacity to say Kemp was a “nice guy.”
Here’s the tweet that thrust him into controversy: “I went to high school with GOP guv candidate @BrianKempGA. We played YMCA ball from childhood. Politics be damned. He is a nice guy, always was. Kind to a fault,” Davis tweeted. “He’s a friend, always has been, and will be when we’re old(er) and grey(er). That’s how all this should work, people.”
Offensive stuff.
The dust-up recalls the fallout after film director Mark Duplass dared to share some kind words about conservative commentator Ben Shapiro earlier this month. “Fellow liberals: If you are interested at all in ‘crossing the aisle’ you should consider following [Ben Shapiro]. I don’t agree with him on much but he’s a genuine person who once helped me for no other reason than to be nice. He doesn’t bend the truth. His intentions are good,” the actor tweeted. Like Davis, Duplass later posted a dramatic apology, assuring his critics he had learned from the misstep. (My colleague Becket Adams tackled that story here.)
Note that both Duplass and Davis initially couched their compliments by acknowledging Kemp and Shapiro’s politics. But that doesn’t suffice. The only right way to go about complimenting a conservative you happen to think is nice is to not do it in the first place.
The audience for these apologies, by the way, is small — amounting to roughly a handful of perpetually offended liberals on social media. Given the outsize pressure that group is able to exert, it’s easy to understand why people give in and apologize. But we’d all be better served if they ignored the mob and stood by their decisions.
If you think someone is nice, just say it. At a time when so many are less and less inclined to see the basic humanity in their political opponents, that can only help. The emergence of this standard suggesting that complimenting the character of people we disagree with is out of bounds does not bode well for the discourse.
