Understanding Joe Wilson

Okay, so yes, Joe Wilson made an ass of himself.

But for me, that was mostly because he was wrong, not because of his behavior.

I think it's because I have a high tolerance for conflict (which can be helpful in many situations) and specifically, for yelling, but I'm just not as bothered by the Representative from South Carolina's outburst as others seem to be.

And I haven't been as bothered by the raucous town hall meetings that have been happening this summer. If I had to choose between apathy and raucousness, I would choose raucousness every time.

Now mind you, the bringing-guns-with-you thing is a whole other story. That makes me want to lock people up. But yelling? I get that.

In fact, I sort of did it myself at the "town hall" meeting I attended. My representative was trying to use his talking points in response to a woman's question that had nothing to do with his talking points. She interrupted him and clarified her question once, and he kept doing it. After she'd already tried and he actually said "Okay, but that's not the primary question" and tried to pretend the primary question was about the public option, I used my cutting-through-crap voice and said -- loudly, in a brief moment of silence -- "That wasn't her question." It got the job done, and he had to ask her to repeat her question (again) and then admit that he didn't know the answer. (For the record, it was a silly, way-too-specific question that he was obviously not going to have an answer for, but still, respect your constituents enough to address them and not the questions you wish they would ask.)

All of which is to say, I understand being frustrated enough to yell things out. My outburst that day was not my first comment. I'd been muttering for a while before that.

When someone else has the floor in such a total way that they are defining reality, and you believe reality is something completely different, yelling, though "socially inappropriate" is one option that cuts through the gap in authority to define reality. For some of us, being rude and disruptive is way more tolerable than allowing what we believe is the truth to be distorted. You might call it a form of (not particularly) civil (but non-violent) disobedience (to social norms).

I don't agree with Joe Wilson. But I understand his motivation. If I had taken a different path and ended up in Congress, and had to sit through a certain president's speeches, he might not have been the first person to do what he did.

I also wonder if there isn't something anti-democratic about decorum. I understand that there's something nice about respecting the office of the president and granting that he's the president of the whole country. But on the other hand, this was a policy speech. He wasn't being a figure-head. He was being the leader of his party. Why shouldn't such situations be open to heckling? Decorum can be used as a tool of repression. We should be careful about that.