On being abrasive in politics…

Seems a back and forth political dispute has erupted between Nashville blogger/journalist Adam Kleinheider and Davidson County GOP Vice-Chair/former Ron Paul campaign activist Matt Collins. In his latest e-mail, Collins asserts that a “local reporter from Nashville has attacked the Ron Paul / liberty movement in TN including myself”.

Collins includes a link to a column written by A.C. Kleinheider where he argues:

However, at a recent Davidson County Party picnic, [DCRP Vice Chairman Matt] Collins proved this wasn’t the case. In a blog post on July 13, Collins recounts an interaction he had with current Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Zach Wamp at that event.

“Several DCRP officers and myself approached [Wamp] near the conclusion of the Picnic because we wanted to discuss HR1207 (Audit the Federal Reserve Act). Representative Wamp extended his hand to me to shake it and I absolutely refused; I am not interested in being friendly towards those who violate the Constitution,” wrote Collins.

Wamp apparently had committed the cardinal sin of voting for one of the bailouts of the country’s financial institutions back in October. For that, he was refused the courtesy civilized men commonly afford strangers.

Mind you this is not a petulant child or even a college kid who refused the Congressman’s handshake but a 27-year-old man — a man who purportedly wants to serve ”the cause of liberty.”

Excuse me, but how do you serve the cause of liberty, or any other for that matter, by coming off like an eccentric jerk? This is politics after all. It is a form of combat, but it is not one where a blunt instrument or an antisocial personality is going to serve one particularly well.

Being no stranger to abrasiveness and having moved away from it to an extent – and having moved from the Nashville area – I have a renewed approach to this issue. Kleinheider is right.

Whether the Ron Paul folks like it or not, politics is about working together. You may personally hate (or have an extreme distaste) for those on the opposite side of the aisle – whichever side that may be – but you cannot be blatantly disrespectful to those people OR those who are fighting the same cause as yourself.

Collins, being a representative of the Davidson County Republican Party, is – whether he likes it or not – a manifestation of the GOP. If Collins cannot “play nice” at a political event, then perhaps he should re-think his role in the party.

Party officers must often “tow the line” when it comes to Republican or Democratic policies. I do not necessarily align my views with the RNC or even the TNGOP, but if I am an officer in their organization, I should maintain a certain level of dignity while attending a function.

Not only that, but refusing to shake someone’s hand because he or she didn’t vote one way or another is just childish. There’s no excuse for it. Neither is ignoring someone with which you do not agree at a political event. We can disagree without being disagreeable.

My advice to Collins is to do what I did: resign. I served as Treasurer of the Rutherford County Young Republicans, and when an elected official transgressed politically, I resigned my position to distance myself from that individual. If the Republican delegation does not represent you in Congress 100% of the time, then that’s fine, but in a two-party system, we don’t have many options.

And alienating ourselves from the mainstream is not a way to get ahead in the party structure.