Political Name Calling: You Got a Problem with That?

Name Calling Frenzy After President’s Speech to Congress

In the middle of the worst financial crisis in memory, President Obama gave a powerful and masterful speech to Congress and the American people last week. The speech received rave reviews from American citizens. Yet since the speech Republican leaders and media figures have been ranting and issuing calls for revolution and calling the President every name in the book. The rhetoric verges on hysteria.

Name Calling From Both Republicans and Democrats–Why?

What is going on here? Why are bright, highly achieving people from the government, media and financial worlds acting so bizarrely? Why are some forming Sons of Liberty groups and holding Tea parties? It’s not only the Republicans who are acting weird and calling names. The liberals on the left aren’t doing much better. Consider the blog from Bob Cesca on Huffington Post called The Wingnut Revolution which is dripping with sarcasm. I can understand Cesca’s frustration; his sarcasm is, under the circumstances, understandable. The question is, is this a helpful response?

Paul Jenkins, another Huff Post blogger, uses phrases like nut jobs and barmy to describe a list of Republicans who have, according to him, gone off the deep end. There are few people who have the patience to inquire into what is going on, to ask the deeper questions. Why bother? Because we are in a national crisis of unprecedented proportions and we need every-body’s help to solve it. If we keep calling names back and forth, we keep the discourse on the level of children bickering. Kids who call each other names get their feelings hurt. This kind of climate gets nasty very fast and it becomes impossible to work together.

President Obama has some extraordinary skills and keen instincts about where to take the country. His bipartisan impulses are wise ones. However there is one skill he lacks. He doesn’t have the skill of helping people to complete negative experiences and feelings from the past. He has never learned how to help people air whatever feelings of complaint or hurt are lingering from what has gone before, whether it is the last election or the fight over the stimulus package. Until people are complete with the past they cannot work together to create a new future. This is a vital skill to have and it is disappointing that Obama and his team do not, apparently, know how to do this.

The Republicans are needed to help heal the financial crisis. They are needed to help heal the energy crisis, re-invent the health care system and to re-design the education system. They are bright people and they have ideas and when those ideas are solicited from people who are no longer burdened down by resentment and negative feelings, but enlisted in solving the country’s problems they will come forward with dynamism and creativity.  Republicans are disorganized and frightened with their party in disarray. Democrats have been in this position themselves and can afford some compassion. It’s not a pleasant place to be. Indeed, the whole country is frightened.

People in our country, and our national leaders in particular, lack the skill of being able to be present to intense emotion and to contain that emotion so they don’t say the first rash thing that comes out of their mouth. It’s called emotional intelligence. They lack the skill of deep listening so they can work together respectfully in partnership. Perhaps this crisis will teach our leaders and all of us some valuable and much needed skills.

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