They said that?

Last week Republican county judge Tom Head in Lubbock made national headlines when he gave a provocative interview to Fox News saying the country could lapse into a civil war with fighting like that at Lexington and Concord during the Revolutionary War if Obama is re-elected.  The judge, who was trying to curry support for increased law enforcement funding, said the president would cede authority to the United Nations-the world governing authority of which the United States is a member. Judge Head argued the county needed to protect itself by purchasing more equipment to prepare for the U.N. invasion.  The judge’s interview gained national attention, and the Lubbock sheriff quickly distanced himself from the Judge Head’s remarks. The judge himself said the comments were taken out of context.

Such political gaffes (mistakes that are made when speaking publicly) and extreme political hyperbole (inflammatory rhetoric designed to elicit strong public reactions) foster a debate about the outer limits of free speech in the public arena.   Vice-President Joe Biden, who has been notorious for making gaffes which was criticized for his comments regarding Romney’s vision for the working class saying Romney would “put y’all back in chains”, implying the Republican presidential candidate supports slavery.  Toni Preckwinkle, a Democratic Illinois county board president had to retract a statement and publicly apologize earlier this summer after she said former President Ronald Reagan deserved a “special place in hell” because of his policies about the “War on Drugs” (the U.S. policy of “zero tolerance” meaning maximum penalties for drug violations).

More extreme rhetoric like that of U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin (R-Missouri) sparked outrage and calls for him drop out of the race when he made comments about rape suggesting that women’s bodies would reject impregnation in cases of “legitimate rape”.  The Akin incident reminded Texans of our 1990 gubernatorial campaign when Republican Clayton Williams commented that bad weather was like rape, sometimes you have to just “relax and enjoy it.”   More recently and closer to home, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tyler) compared homosexuality to bestiality, likened President Obama’s presidency to Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship, and warned there are “evil-doers” making “terror babies” to destroy the country, but he continues to enjoy wide support in his district.

Some wonder whether such statements are any part of the marketplace of ideas (the concepts or understanding about issues in our political world) and whether such statements enhance or harm the democratic process and our political culture-our set of beliefs, attitudes, opinions, and orientations that we have about government.   What does allowing a free and open marketplace mean for our political culture?  Should we allow expressions which facilitate a broader debate about policymaking or does such hyperbole undermine the civility of political life, leading people to be disenchanted with politics?

One thing is clear in our open marketplace of ideas—as one of my students so eloquently said-when politicians like Biden, Akin, and Preckwinkle make such comments, we the people, get to call them dorks.