I was fascinated by this Glenwood Springs Post Independent letter to the editor written by Garfield County GOP Chair Carrie Couey, who got her fifteen minutes of fame last fall by visiting the Trump White House to “educate” Donald about healthcare. She got the invite because her family was used by conservative operative Laura Carno in a disingenuous, misleading, and seldom watched anti-Michael Bennet ad.
You wouldn’t think Couey would be lecturing people about civility when she supports a man like Trump, for whom vulgarity and incivility are a most-favored currency. That level of self-awareness has not been achieved, apparently, as you can read in Couey’s letter to the Post Independent:
We do not, however, believe that a confrontational approach is productive for any group demanding an action and will probably even make the possibility for such action they purport to want even less likely. It would be refreshing to have people, once again, go through the proper channels and exercise civility to achieve their aims.
Gee, wouldn’t it be refreshing if people exercised civility? I’m not sure if this letter was written from a fainting couch, but the manufactured outrage is palpable. You probably won’t be stunned to find out that Couey’s husband, Kelly Couey, who is featured so prominently in that anti-Bennet ad, wouldn’t know civility if it opened the door for him and sent him flowers.
This single sample of his public Facebook posts tells the story. Kelly Couey was annoyed by recent demonstration in Glenwood Springs, where protesters were chanting, “We Want a Town Hall.” Republicans at the event told the protesters to get jobs, but Kelly Couey suggests in this Facebook post that Republicans give them signs saying, among other things, “Shame your own mom didn’t practice abortion!”
As you can see, Kelly Couey might need some tutoring from his wife on the fine art of civil political discourse. So I’ll respond to her pleas by paraphrasing an old horror movie: “Carrie, the incivility is coming from inside your (glass) house!”
