It will probably go down in history as the first presidential speech remembered not for what the President said but for how a member of his audience responded. Even if you didnt watch Barack Obamas health care address last week Im sure youve heard what happened. Obama had just finished saying that his health care plan would not cover illegal aliens. In response Rep. Joe Wilson shouted out You lie!" shocking television audiences from coast to coast not to mention the President.
Talking heads have spent the rest of the week talking about the need for civility in public discourseand thats a good thing.
Two people who are likely paying close attention to this debate are men who are about as far apart politically as its possible to get. Mark DeMoss is the conservative president of the DeMoss Group. Lanny Davis is a former advisor to Bill and Hillary Clinton.
DeMoss and Davis both concerned about the sharp decline in civility have created an online forum called The Civility Project. Its goal: getting Americans to re-learn how to disagree without being so nasty to one another.
They are inviting Americans of every political stripe to take a civility pledge in which they commit to three things:
I will be civil in my public discourse and behavior. I will be respectful of others whether or not I agree with them. I will stand against incivility when I see it."
Three cheers for them! Too many Americans think that its OK to simply shout down their opponents malign their motives or when all else fails make vicious personal attacks. I lived through this in Watergate being spit upon by angry mobs. And take the case of same-sex marriage" in California last year. We saw the losing side engage in vandalism and threats against their opponents.
Columnist Pat Buchanan recently observed that we seem not only to disagree with each other more than ever but to have come almost to detest one another. Politically culturally racially we seem ever ready to go for each others throats."
But civility is a precondition for democratic dialogue. And civility is mandatory for Christians; Jesus told us to love our enemies which would exclude us from making vicious verbal attacks against them.
I cant excuse Rep. Wilsons outburst. But I do understand his frustration.
For months President Obama himself has been repeatedly accusing his opponents of lying about his health care planjust as he did in his speech 
before Congress.
Even liberal CNN says Obamas regular use of the word lie" is unstatesmanlike." I agree.
And I think its appropriate to note as I have on a previous BreakPoint broadcast that there is considerable evidence Obama himself is distorting the facts about his health care plan in relation to abortion for instance. This kind of behavior no matter which side of the political divide it comes from helps to bring about the kind of incivility Im talking about
I am sure that Rep. Wilson if he could re-live that moment would not shout out at the President again.
And in a show of real civility Wilson apologized to Obama and the President accepted his apology.
I commend them both.
Its a positive step albeit a small one to restore civility to our national discourse.
