Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) accepts the Speaker’s gavel from Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Oct. 29, 2015
From Democrats promoting anti-democratic candidates, to endless and awful emails and texts, to the January 6th Commission, to George Santos, 2022 had no shortage of political communication ethics challenges (no, it is not OK to largely forge your resume, lie to voters, and potentially violate election laws).
Late in 2022 we lost Grant Wahl, one of the nation’s leading soccer journalists. Grant died suddenly covering the men’s World Cup in Qatar. One his last pre-World Cup appearances was with us to discuss sports journalism, human rights and the World Cup (you can listen to most of the conversation here). The New Yorker has a wonderful piece on Grant that’s worth a your time. Search for Grant Wahl in Twitter to read some of what his friends and colleagues had to say about him. We should all have such an impact on so many.
The Project on Ethics in Political Communication is returning to our regular look ahead at political communication issues about to hit the news. The first of the new year is below.
We also plan more online events, more case studies, more analysis, and more outreach. You can follow our work here, on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn (we’ll see what social brings in coming months, but for now that’s where we are).
The Week Ahead - The New Congress
The 118th Congress will be sworn in on Tuesday, January 3. It is mostly a day of photo-ops, receptions, and newly elected Representatives getting lost in the tunnels that connect the Capital to the House office buildings. It is also the day the House will elect a new Speaker. The remarks of the outgoing and incoming Speakers are opportunities to reinforce democratic norms and reaffirm faith in shared democratic ideals.
What We’re Reading
Speaker of the House Inaugural Speeches
The swearing in of the Speaker of House of Representatives is an under-appreciated political ritual. The remarks of the outgoing and incoming Speakers are opportunities to reaffirm a shared faith in shared democratic ideals (civil religion) and reinforce a commitment to democratic norms. The audience is Members of the House of Representatives and their staff. The general public isn’t allowed in the building (there isn’t enough room), and few watch the speech on CSPAN. The speech is for Congress.
I spent part of last week watching and reading recent Speaker of the House inaugural addresses. A few excerpts are below.
In 2019, the last time Ms. Pelosi was elected Speaker, she said, “Every two years, we gather in this chamber for a sacred ritual. Under the dome of this temple of democracy, the Capitol of the United States, we renew the great American experiment.” Later she said, “We have no illusions that our work will be easy, and that all of us in this chamber will always agree. But let each of us pledge that when we disagree, we respect each other and we respect the truth.” She concluded saying, “Guided by the vision and values of our founders, the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform and the aspirations that we have for our children, let us meet that responsibility with wisdom, with courage and with grace.”
In 2011, when Ms. Pelosi turned the gavel over to Mr. Boehner after the Democrats lost the House, she said “Today, as we take the oath of office to support and defend our Constitution, we do so as trustees of America’s best hopes and as custodians of America’s highest values. However we may differ, let us never lose sight of our common laws, love for this exceptional nation and our shared obligation to the way forward.” She concluded her introduction saying, “We now engage in a strong symbol of American democracy. The peaceful and respectful exchange of power.”
On January 3, 2017 Paul Ryan (R-WI) was re-elected Speaker of the House. In his opening remarks he said: “Just months ago, our country held a great electoral contest. At times it was a little intense…The clash of opinions, the hue and cry of campaigns, the rancor of the dissension, in the end, they all dissolve in the silent and peaceful transfer of power…For all of our arguments and all our differences, we are all united by a deep, abiding love of our country. It is this slender but sturdy thread that holds us together. We always seem to forget this. But it has never failed us. That is why when the votes are counted and the people have spoken, well all accept the verdict.”
In accepting the Speaker’s gavel for the fifth and final time on January 3, 1985, the late Tip O’Neill (D-MA) said, “Of course there will be disagreements. There always is [sic] in our two-party system. We all have a common love of this country and a respect for democracy…I hope that our actions will prove the correctness of Thomas Jefferson’s observation that the government is founded not on the fears and follies of man but on his dreams. I hope most of all that what we do here in this House over the next two years will result in increasing respect and appreciation of our constituents for this Congress and our government.”
These and other Speaker inaugural speeches articulate a civil religion, a symbolic and rhetorical construction of the United States as a special - even divine - place and idea. More on the topic is here and here. Philip Gorski’s 2017 book, American Covenant, is a longer look at the subject.
A recent study on elite political rhetoric is here.
What We’re Asking
Will the incoming Speaker continue the tradition of reinforcing norms and reaffirming faith in in shared democratic values, or will elite attacks on the institutions and ideals on which democracy relies continue?