Civility and Good Manners Coming into Style

I had an interesting conversation with Caroline Dieterle at the New Pioneer Coop entrance this morning. I asked her who she was going to vote for in the Johnson County supervisor election June 7th, 2016. (Some of you may have voted already at the county auditor’s office.)

“Rod Sullivan, Kurt Friese, and Jason Lewis,” she said.

“Oh, I can’t vote for Rod Sullivan,” I replied.

“Why not?” she asked.

“He’s too rude.”

“Who’s he been rude to?” she asked.

“Me,” I said.

I described the circumstances and she just couldn’t believe that Rod would be not only rude, but aggressive and improper in democratic procedures.

I explained to her that Rod doesn’t care how he does things as long as he thinks he’s right.

She said she doesn’t much care how he does things as long as he votes the right way. He votes the right way, I agreed, but I do care how he does things.

I told her that Kurt Friese agreed with me that Rod can be rude, “among others.”

“Who would those ‘others’ be?” I asked Caroline.

“Well, Janelle Rettig can be somewhat peremptory,” Caroline remarked.

Rettig, a current Johnson County supervisor, is also a good friend of Rod Sullivan. She’s told me many times that I would be surprised how often he and I agree on the issues. At a certain point, based on how he treats me socially and at formal subcommittee and committee meetings, I don’t care how much Rod and I agree on the issues. He’s just too rude, too aggressive, too careless of appropriate processing of the issues, too careless of parliamentary proceeding, democratic proceedings, whatever you want to call the way things are supposed to get done. If he’s right, he feels, than it doesn’t matter how he gets things done or who he runs over in the process.

Caroline seems to agree with that philosophy. She said she's sick of people talking about "process." I'm not. Neither are Bob and Maggie Elliott. They wrote in a letter to the Gazette about how the Johnson County Democratic Party should be “inclusive” as opposed to “exclusive.” The Johnson County Democratic Party's current exclusivity is exactly what I’m talking about. Once the Johnson County Democrats become an exclusive club that members only (they decide who can belong) can join and participate in, they’ve got a problem. They just don’t know it yet because they’ve been so successful.

The tide is beginning to turn. Two former Republicans, now Democrats, are running for Johnson County supervisor positions: Patricia Heiden and Mike Hull. I’ve seen a lot of yellow Pat Heiden and some (blue?) signs for Mike Hull. Many more pop up for Pat Heiden than for Mike Hull, but both candidates are civil and likeable people.

I’ve seen more Friese and Lewis signs than I’ve seen Sullivan signs. Every once in a while you’ll see a Sullivan sign paired with a Friese and Lewis sign, but not often.

Who knows? Good manners and likeability could catch on in the People’s Republic of Johnson County.

Johnson County Supervisor Mike Carberry has learned the lesson. Other incumbents fail to learn the lesson at their peril.

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