Incivility is a big topic right now in politics and news media, and much of that conversation is being driven by how President Trump and his opposition have chosen to conduct themselves in the midst of ongoing political battles.
It’s a legitimate focus of discussion, especially given the that Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., urged her supporters this weekend to harass members of the Trump administration if they saw them in person, and given Trump’s winking response to his followers.
But of course, there’s a difference between discussing civility on the one hand, and hijacking the issue to talk about your hobby horse. Take, for example, MSNBC reporter Garrett Haake, who used a broader discussion on the issue as an opportunity to complain about … the Electoral College?
Haake’s remarks came after MSNBC host Kristen Welker played a clip of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who was accosted recently by the anti-Trump “resistance,” saying he hopes that we can one day go back to “civil discourse” in the U.S..
Haake responded by saying there was a “generational element” to the resistance’s opposition of Trump.
“Speaking as a millennial, people I talk to, my friends, people who I correspond with on Twitter, a feeling of if the institutions have broken down,” the MSNBC reporter said.
He added, “They saw the economy fall apart. They saw scandals in the church. They saw an election where the person who got the most votes didn’t win, and I think there’s a feeling like the traditional institutions here haven’t worked, and people are looking for another outlet now.”
Wait. What? I understand Haake citing the economy and the church scandals. I don’t understand Hillary Clinton’s loss as an example of “the institutions have broken down.”
If one feels that the “the institutions have broken down” because Hillary Clinton didn’t get the White House based on the popular vote, well, that certainly reflects poorly on someone, but I don’t think it’s the institutions, aside from perhaps the lack of civics education in this country.
How one manages to takes the topic of political incivility and make it into something bigger about how Hillary Clinton’s 2016 loss is a bigger indictment on the U.S. is anyone’s guess, but you have to give it Haake – he gave it the old college try.
