Give a soft answer

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise dispenses knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly.

Prov. 15:1-2

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Matt. 5:5

Louisa and I were having a leisurely breakfast in our housecoats last week when our doorbell rang. Louisa answered the door to discover a former federal Conservative MP on our doorstep doing some early campaigning in hopes of winning back the riding from our current NDP MP. I followed Louisa to the door to join the conversation.

He was already on the campaign trail because he thought the current unholy alliance between the Liberals and the NDP could end at any time. The Conservatives needed to be ready to re-establish sanity in our land. He cited a long list of grievances that all “right-thinking Canadians” have with the current Trudeau/Singh government. He lauded the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada who would fix the economy, starting by axing the carbon tax. When I asked him why it was so important to “axe the tax” he looked as if I had just questioned the existence of gravity.

Two wrongs don’t make a right

Louisa asked him why the leader of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition seemed to thrive on the mean-spirited level of discourse that permeates the current House of Commons. She mentioned that Alberta’s current premier also revels in snark and Trudeau bashing. She recalled how, after teaching her ESL students about our democratic system of government, she had taken the class to the Alberta Provincial Legislature. These were people who had come to Canada for a new life. They were quite stunned to see the nasty level of disrespect within the government of their new country. She, too, was embarrassed and found it difficult to explain this uncivil behaviour. “Why,” Louisa asked our visitor, “does political discourse have to be so confrontational and negative?”

“Well,” responded the former MP, “because it works! Polling shows that people respond more emotionally to negative than to positive campaigning. You have to get people really mad about stuff to get them to vote.”

“What about simple decency and respect in political debate?” asked Louisa.

“Nope, that doesn’t work nearly as well as nastiness and hard-ball rhetoric,” replied our hopeful candidate. “You have to do what works to get elected. If you don’t get elected, you won’t bring about positive change.”

“But how can pervasive negativity bring about positive change? Just because it ‘works’ doesn’t make it right,” we responded.

Shaking his head about our naivety, he turned away and said, “Thanks for the conversation.”

We were too polite to tell him that, at least in our case, he was wrong about political negativity “working” because, if he is nominated to run in our riding, he certainly won’t be getting our votes.