News
Monmouth U Hosts Panel On Politics And Civility
By John Burton
WEST LONG BRANCH - It wasn't always like this: Rabid partisanship from both major parties, to the point where it creates an insurmountable legislative logjam; acrimony and personal attacks being traded as the political coin of the realm; pundits and media demagogues skewing information for their own political agendas in the guise of providing a venue for public discourse while yelling at their guests and the audience.
It wasn't always like this, said members of a panel who gathered at Monmouth University last Tuesday to discuss the "Politics of Civility."
Sponsored by the university's Office of Academic Program Initiatives and the political science department the panel featured former Republican New Jersey Governor Thomas H. Kean, Alvin Felzenberg, who authored a biography of Kean, Michael Murphy, stepson of former Governor Richard J. Hughes and former Morris County prosecutor, along with John Wefing, who penned a biography on Hughes.
Moderator Alan Steinberg, who is the university's public servant in residence, told the audience that the legacies of Governors Kean and Hughes stand in direct contrast to the environment of "smash mouth" political comment one sees conducted in today's media and political arena.
Kean served as governor from 1982 to 1990, and went on to chair the federal 9/11 Commission.
Kean told the audience the reasons for the current vitriolic political environment - which he said started in Washington, D.C. and has filtered down to state and local levels - has much to do with the tremendous amount of money candidates and incumbents raise. Some of those funds are applied to "opposition research," which is used to find and exploit the vulnerabilities of political opponents.
The way legislative districts are now drawn, they favor incumbents, who almost always win re-elections, Kean said. The only threat incumbents face is often from primary challenges from within their own parties; and that often arises because incumbents fail to be perceived by their party bases as either conservative or liberal enough to appease the base, Kean explained.
What that does, he said, is prevents legislators from reaching across the aisle to work with the other party to actually get things done.
"The compromise was made in the middle," he said. "There's no center now."
Kean spent years of his youth in Washington, where his father served in Congress. Back then, he recalled children of representatives of both parties played together, while their parents regularly dined together, even if they held strong, passionate contradicting views on the issues. "It's changed. It's not the same," these days, he said.
For Murphy, who grew up in a political family, part of the problem is, "Today people play at politics." When Hughes, a Democrat, was governor in the 1960s, Murphy recalled it was seen as a profession, "and people played it that way," working diligently at it.
Tuesday's discussion centered on Hughes and Kean, who both held the state's highest elected office. But while separated by age - they served about a generation apart - and by party association, they shared a sense of civility and the desire to get things done by compromise and consensus, panel members noted.
Murphy told of how Hughes would meet with legislators from different parties and ask, "Well, my friends, what are we going to do for the citizens of New Jersey?"
"I hope we can get back to that," Murphy said. "Perhaps Gov. Christie has learned from Gov. Kean and others."
"People in those days seemed to be able to argue strongly, yet later come together to work for the people," offered Wefing, author of The Life and Times of Richard J. Hughes: The Politics of Civility.
After leaving office in 1970, Hughes, a Democrat, was named to the state Supreme Court, by Republican, Gov. William Cahill, who had worked with Hughes back when Cahill was a congressman. "We can only hope we can see a move back to the days of Gov. Hughes and Kean," Wefing said.
Kean touched upon the role of the media saying, "I don't like to appear on those shows. I turn them down," referring to shows with hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, which he said are often nothing more than, "a sounding board for the host."
Adding to the challenge for today's candidates are newer media like Twitter and YouTube, which can capture immediately one misstatement, Wefing observed.
"It's no question it's more complex, it's more difficult and it takes courage," to be in politics today, Kean added. But if officials show that courage to reach out across the political divide, Kean said he expected the electorate to embrace those politicians.
Change, however, has to begin in Washington, Kean believes.
Former Monmouth County Freeholder Barbara McMorrow, who just completed a one-year term as director, said that the observations of the panel resonated for her, adding that she wished more local officials had attended the discussion.
During her service as on the freeholder board, McMorrow said, "People on both sides of the aisle will tell you (that) I tried to develop consensus - sometimes to the displeasure of my own party."
