Florida Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson is what is clinically called “a piece of work.” He yields to no one in his defiance of basic civility in discourse, not even Rep. Joe “You Lie!” Wilson. Grayson is the Congressman whose explanation of the GOP position on health care was that “they want you to die.” He said that Dick Cheney speaks with “blood dripping from his teeth.” His mode of debate and persuasion, in other words, is insult and hyperbole. Respect for opposing views: zilch. Civility grade: F.
Public figures like Grayson degrade public discourse by their offensive and hateful speech, designed to throw red meat to supporters and inflame their passion rather than educate, persuade and inform. The result of their uncivil ways is to encourage adversaries to behave similarly. Two wrongs don’t make a right, and the fact that Grayson is a boor and a bully doesn’t excuse others from acting like him, even when their insults go to the source, Grayson himself. Grayson, however, has no standing to complain. He has endorsed unethical rules and plays by them. He may not complain when others follow his lead, though they should not.
Amazingly, however he has. The Orlando Sentinel reports that Grayson is outraged at a website, designed as a parody of his own, that is aimed at defeating him next November. Grayson has sent a complaint to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder asking him to prosecute Republican activist Angie Langley for starting the anti-Grayson website www.mycongressmanisnuts,com a satirical jab at Grayson’s bombastically titled site, http://www.congressmanwithguts.com. Although her parody site is far milder in its invective than a typical Grayson rant, he suggests to Holder that Langley should be imprisoned for five years.
There’s respect for the First Amendment for you! Grayson’s actions once again confirm a reliable rule of human nature: individuals who are habitually uncivil do not merely have a bad habit or poor self-control. They lack humility as well as basic respect and fairness toward others. The common, often uncivil but sometimes accurate term for individuals like Rep. Grayson is “jerk.”
Ethics Alarms wishes Ms. Langley every success in her endeavors, while urging her to keep her website restrained. One should not have to engage in exaggerations or invective to make the case that our nation needs leaders who are better role models than Alan Grayson.
Ethics Alarms 
“Jerk” is overstating Grayson’s character; alas, the English language lacks the precision of Yiddish, in which tongue we could nail him down exactly.
The sin that Grayson and too many others commit daily is the most serious threat our society faces: it threatens our ability to govern ourselves.
We need Dems to call out Grayson, Franken, Olbermann, and their kind, and we need Republicans to call out Bachman, Limbaugh, and their kind.
It won’t happen, of course—only one Republican voted to reprimand Wilson, and Pelosi has brushed off criticism of Grayson.
Of the Uncivil, the worst are Olberman, Beck, Mark Levin, and Michael Savage. Rush gets a bad rap…he is tough, and he is politically incorrect, and he is too frequently mean, but most of the time he stays on the right side of the line for a commentator/satirist/ provocateur. He is the only talk radio host I know of who tries to be fair to legitimate callers with opposing views. He doesn’t hang up on them (like Laura Ingraham) or call them names (like Savage) or scream at them (like Levin) or get sarcastic and condescending (like Sean Hannity.) The focus is on Limbaugh because he’s the leader of the club, but if all radio hosts would turn down the rhetoric to his level, it would be a big improvement.
The real tragedy is that Americans can’t (or won’t) discern the violence this type of rhetoric does to our body politic, and demand better. Too often, this feeds our own need for “red meat,” a sad commentary on the darkness in our own souls.
I wish Rep. Grayson were the worst. Unfortunately, he is not. If only the leaders of the respective parties had the guts to decry such shenanigans, perhaps their parties’ poll ratings wouldn’t be in Dick Cheney territory.
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