Gabrielle Russon
U.S. Rep Stephanie Murphy wanted to find a place to hide during the Jan. 6 insurrection.
“I thought I went to the safest place possible, which was the heart of the Capitol,” Murphy said. “I ended up about 40 feet from where all the severe violence occurred.”
Murphy, the moderate Democrat who has since left Congress, voiced her fears for what could happen again after the Presidential Election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
“I’m deeply concerned,” Murphy said Wednesday during a League of Women Voters of Orange County event.
“I’m worried about the next election. It appears that this election, no matter which way it goes, is going to be very, very tight … and I spent a lot of time trying to understand how it got to be that average Americans found themselves in Washington trying to storm the Capitol, and some of these people genuinely believed that they were being patriotic because they believed that there was something amiss.”
Murphy was one of several panelists speaking about the tone of today’s politics at a Winter Park forum moderated by Orange County School Board Chair Teresa Jacobs, who previously served as Orange County Mayor. The discussion, “Civil Discourse: Not Civil War,” was livestreamed on social media.
The tone of the event seemed part therapy session and part political science lesson. How can two sides on the political spectrum communicate? How do you turn down the anger in this political climate? And who is at fault? How did we get here?
Blame social media — looking at you, Elon Musk — and the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, said former state Rep. Dick Batchelor , who is President of his own consulting firm.
“When the court made that ruling that corporations have unfettered ability to fund campaigns and fund campaigns with essentially no limitations,” he said, people began feeling like they had no influence as corporations got more powerful.
“That’s why forums like this are so good to keep people inspired that your vote does count,” Batchelor told the crowd.
The vitriol in politics today is dangerous to society and democracy, Murphy added.
“Young people watch the incivility that happens, and they decide I don’t want to have anything to do with this, and so then they don’t vote,” said Murphy, the first Vietnamese American woman to be elected to Congress who is still involved with promoting middle ground politics. “And there’s nothing more dangerous to a democracy than a disengaged electorate.”
