This isn’t my idea of a civil political or religious discussion.
On Wednesday night, as I’ve mentioned here and here, I met with Congressman Jason Chaffetz and a small group of Utah Muslim leaders for a discussion of their concerns. Much of the discussion, unsurprisingly, centered on President Trump’s recent executive order regarding entry into the United States by people from seven predominantly Muslim nations.
On Thursday night, Representative Chaffetz held a town hall that turned out to involve mostly chanting and yelling:
I must say that I’m not favorably impressed by that kind of behavior. It is, once again, evidence of the toxicity of our contemporary politics — a level of hatred and personal contempt (and unreason) against which I’ve spoken multiple times on this blog. I heartily dislike it no matter what side of the political aisle it’s coming from.
I also find it ironic that, while at least a substantial portion of the anger at the Thursday town hall meeting was evidently generated by Mr. Trump’s executive order, Wednesday’s conversation with people actually impacted by that order was calm, polite, reasonable, and lucid. It ended with smiles and handshakes on all sides.
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