In 2020, name-calling at the polls makes democracy more precious | Opinion

“Baby-killers.”

“Pedophiles.”

“Fword-ing Democrats.”

“Socialists.”

Those were some of the epithets hurled at me and my fellow poll watchers at the early voting site outside the supervisor of elections office on 301 Boulevard this past weekend. People who support another party’s candidate think it’s perfectly OK to curse out your fellow citizens for performing a civic duty.

The “pedophile” slur was uttered by a thin, heavily-tattooed woman who has obviously drunk the QAnon Kool-aid. Trying to reason with her about the absurdity of that group’s fantasy world was like talking to a wall. It only made her more agitated and set her off on a new tangent of Deep State ranting.

It’s too bad that it has become normal to curse and demean your fellow citizens with whom you disagree. It wasn’t so long ago that people respected the social contract that bound opposing political sides to certain norms of behavior for their mutual benefit. In that time people would not curse you for having a political sign in your yard or for offering literature about the candidates. For that matter, people would not have questioned wearing masks during a pandemic to hold down the infection rate of a deadly virus. The spirit of we’re-all-in-this-together prevailed.

But that contract is broken — and in reality has been crumbling for quite a while. Newt Gingrich is largely responsible for the damage. Beginning in the early ‘80s he openly campaigned to make partisan politics a blood-sport, deriding Republicans for being too polite. Politicians need to be nasty, he said, and even offered GOP candidates his own vocabulary to make their campaigns nastier. In one memo, titled “Language: A Key Mechanism of Control,” he listed words to use in describing Democrats. The words included sick, pathetic, lie, anti-flag, traitors, radical, corrupt. Sound familiar?

So, I should not have been surprised at the names I was called last weekend. And I should be used to it. I’ve been called a communist more times than I can count, starting at age 14. Still, as disheartening as it was, the ugly behavior of a few angry voters didn’t spoil what for me was an uplifting experience in grass-roots democracy. Just watching the steady stream of early voters and those dropping absentee-ballots into the Elections Office drop-box was morale-boosting.

They came in ones, twos and threes — a husband and wife with an elderly parent; a mom and two energetic little boys being shown what it means to vote; an older woman with her adult daughter, each clutching the envelope containing their ballot, each feeling the need to personally drop the ballot into the slot. Some were limping, some shuffling painfully slowly on canes, some using wheeled walkers to steady their course from their cars to the voting center or drop box.

It was fun to watch those who stopped to snap selfies of themselves dropping their ballot, or posed for their companion to record the moment on a cell-phone.

I saw timidity, even fear of the unknown. A young Hispanic man, obviously voting for the first time, anxiously inquired about exactly where to vote and how to do it, looking almost as if he might just get back into his truck and drive off. I was happy to point him to the right door and to assure him that the folks inside would explain how to go through the process. He came out smiling.

And there was the older couple with their adult daughter, exiting the polling place with thumbs-up gestures and wide smiles. The daughter explained that they had just moved to Bradenton from Puerto Rico this past year and this was the first time they had been able to vote for president, as residents of the island territory lack that right.

I’ve been voting for 62 years, and I have never before seen the level of patriotic pride I observed among voters while poll-watching Friday and Saturday. They had the look of people on a mission, and that was heartening. I have no idea if their mission was aligned with or contrary to mine, but at least it means that people really care about the election this year. I don’t recall that kind of fervor at the polls since at least the Nixon era of 1968.

I suspect that President Trump’s campaign to devalue mail-in voting and to question the validity of the election outcome if he loses has something to do with the sense of pride I got from watching voters. Not gonna’ steal MY vote, is the message I took from their faces as they resolutely walked, limped and shuffled to the Elections Office.

So, if it takes name-calling to get people energized politically, so be it. After watching voters do democracy up close, I feel better about this election than I did a week ago. I think it’s going to be all right.

David Klement is former Editorial Page editor of the Bradenton Herald. His book, “Conscience of the Community: Memoir of a Small-Town Editor,” is reprises some of his work in that role and is recently published at Amazon.com.