Marcus Vincent Brown
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From penis references to wife slander, the GOP presidential candidates in this upcoming election have single-handedly made a mockery of the race for the highest position in this country. However, that is not to say that the entire party is beyond redemption. I am not a supporter of the Republican Party. At the same time, I will give credit where credit is due, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich has recently demonstrated something the rest of the GOP presidentials appear to be lacking and something that makes me doubt their viability as a potential president. What I am referring to is decorum.
On Sunday while speaking to Chuck Todd, the host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Kasich took a departure from the usual Islamophobic stance of his candidacy opposition. He insightfully remarked that we must have “intimate communication and coordination with our friends in the Muslim community” after speaking on the “knee-jerk” desire to discriminate against those in the Muslim community in the wake of the terrorist attacks that have plagued the globe.
Furthermore, Kasich has spoken out against attacks on candidates’ family members following the wife-insulting debacle between fellow candidates Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz. If anything, these moments of decency affirm the notion that while we may have differences in ideology, there should still be a baseline level of decorum maintained in the presidential race. Even if I despise your politics, I shouldn’t feel the need to despise you as a human being as well.
Now, I am not naïve enough to believe that any two people can come to a full agreement on anything other than the color of the sky and maybe the existence of gravity. Let’s say that I, myself, do not believe that we landed on the Moon or that narwhals actually exist. I believe both to have been conjured up in a nondescript Hollywood studio for reasons I will probably never fully understand. If that were the case, you might ask yourself how someone who doesn’t believe in the Moon landing and the entire existence of a relatively well-documented species of animal could be attending an institution of higher learning let alone be trusted to write for a widely circulated news publication.
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These would be valid questions to raise and ones I feel are answered by that simple thing called decorum. Putting what some would believe to be nonsensical conspiracy theories aside, my beliefs may be flawed, but I have no problem interacting with a world of ordinary thinking individuals who would disagree with me on these issues. While I may be woefully lacking in common sense and rationality, I’d like to think I make up for it with a degree of decorum that still allows for me to operate as a functional member of society and a reasonably well-liked one at that.
In general, I do not go out of my way to defend my beliefs nor do I try to impose them on others. The respect I hold for my ideologies is equal to the respect I have for others’ ideologies, even if they oppose my own.
It’s possible to do this without compromising your beliefs. In fact, I consider this to be a foundation of decorum, and one necessary to exist in accordance with the larger world. The world is a beautiful tapestry of conflicting, interwoven ideologies and realities. However, the strand of said tapestry you represent never entitles you to be a pud.
This is especially true when one seeks to hold a position of power that represents so much more than your own individual beliefs. For this reason, I know I could never demand for a change in certain ideologies represented by the GOP candidates, but I don’t think it would be asking for too much to see just a bit more decorum.
