Event Report: Choose Your Words Carefully: The Consequences of Heated Rhetoric

           On April 12, 2011 The Center for American Progress hosted an event titled, Choose Your Words Carefully: The Consequences of Heated Rhetoric. This even featured Jim Kolbe, former Congressmen from Arizona, Robert Jones, the CEO and founder of Public Religion Research Institute, James Zogby, the President of the Arab American Institute, and Andrea Nill, an immigration researcher for ThinkProgress.org The focus of the event was looking at the harm caused by heated rhetoric on Capitol Hill and across the US.

            Mr. Jones started the discussion with research his organization has been collecting for the past 8 years. This data showed that Americans believe the nation is divided more than ever, with four out of ten Americans giving the moral character of our country a grade of “D” or “F” and only 22 percent giving it an “A” or “B.” A majority of Americans saw a connection between the current political rhetoric and the shooting of Arizona Congresswomen Gabrielle Giffords. In addition, he finds churches are frequently sending discouraging statements towards homosexuality, with six times the amount of people hearing discouragement towards homosexuality compared to those hearing acceptance of homosexuality. Americans see a link between religious messages and elevated risks of suicide for the LGBT community.

            Congressman Kolbe said that despite reports that Arizona was the “Mecca for prejudice and bigotry,” this is not the case. He said things are no different in Arizona than they are all over the country. He went on to state that although it would be a mistake to draw a direct link between the shooting of Rep. Giffords and the current political rhetoric, the issue of heated rhetoric across the US does need to be addressed.

            Andrea Nill agreed with Kolbe that this issue needs to be addressed, especially in regards to immigrants and immigration. She notes that candidates running for election in November 2010 helped to increase this rhetoric, giving examples of Sharon Angle and David Vitter’s ads focusing on immigrants. She suggests that the rhetoric being used on this immigration debate is causing Latinos to feel as though they are under attack.

            James Zogby says that Latinos are not the only group that feels under attack, but Arabs in American also are a target for heated rhetoric. He said about 40 years ago Arabs were a large target of this rhetoric, but this rhetoric diminished to some extent when President Bill Clinton brought Arabs and Israelis together and when President George W. Bush, after the September 11^th attacks, helped to point out that the attacks were perpetrated by extremists and to resist generalize to the whole Arab population. However, recently the Arab community has again come under attack, citing the protesting of building Park 51 in New York.

            The group concluded that there are signs that this rhetoric, and its effects, may begin to diminish in the future as younger generations are become more progressive on social issues such as gay marriage and immigration.