‘To come together and heal.’ Newhouse urges Tri-Cities group to bring civility back to politics
With last week’s riot at the U.S. Capitol, a group of Tri-Citians are looking for a way to share their message of civility.
“There was a time when Republicans and Democrats would all sit together,” said Justin Raffa, an organizer of the Tri-Cities Civility Caucus. “I hear the story of Congressional representatives who would vehemently disagree, but they were still friends with people on the other side of the political aisle.”
It’s a message that Rep. Dan Newhouse hopes will reach a larger audience after the violence of last week. The Republican Congressman spoke Friday to the civility caucus, just over two years after helping inspire its creation.
“I’m looking to you and people like you to help us as a nation to come together and heal,” he said. “Frankly guys, I’m truly concerned about the future of our country. ... Let me say again, how much I appreciate what you’re doing.”
The two dozen members of the Tri-City caucus include politicians, teachers, business owners and retirees who believe it’s possible to disagree without demonizing opponents.
They meet once a month to share stories of civility and to talk about how to express their differences.
The membership is curated to ensure no political persuasion has too much sway, and the group does not simply become another echo chamber, Raffa said.
“I think how we talk to each other is so important to accomplishing anything,” said Steve Simmons, a member of the group and the chief financial officer of CG Public House and Catering.
The civility caucus has its roots in another national tragedy. In 2017, James Hodgkinson opened fire on a group of Republicans practicing for the Congressional Baseball Game for Charity.
He died in a shootout with police but not before wounding a congressman, two lobbyists, a staffer and a Capitol police officer.
Following the shooting, Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, and Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, announced a tour in October 2018 as part of the Congressional Civility and Respect Caucus. They traveled to the campuses of Washington State University Tri-Cities and the University of Washington, met with community groups and toured businesses.
“We believe it is possible to disagree on the issues without being disagreeable,” they said in a joint statement at the time. “With so much national attention on partisanship, we want to start a respectful conversation with Washingtonians about the things we have in common and the areas where we need to work harder to seek out common ground.”
When they were scheduling their stops, they reached out to Stephanie Swanberg, the Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce’s government and regional affairs director.
While organizing the meeting, she looked through the chamber’s membership for a group of diverse, politically-active people. Raffa was one of the folks picked to participate.
“He raised his hand and said, ‘Hey, why don’t we start something like this here,’” she said. “Everyone just said, ‘Yeah, that’s a great idea.’ So, sure enough, a month later, I met with Justin about what that might look like.”
Two years later, the group continues to meet monthly. Now Raffa said they stand at an important precipice about deciding if they should take their message to the larger Tri-Cities.
“I think we’re reaching a point now where we have to decide what this group is called to do,” he said. “I think that this is going to open the door to us. ... Do we have a higher calling to be really engaged with the community.”
Need never greater
Slightly more than two years after inspiring the formation of the group, Newhouse is proud of their efforts he said.
“I should have recorded this with everything that everyone said, so that I could play it for my colleagues in Washington, D.C.,” he said during Friday’s online talk with the caucus. “I think it would be really helpful to have your words of inspiration be heard by all 434 of my colleagues.”
While efforts are going on in Washington, D.C., to increase bipartisanship, he is not certain the needle has moved very far.
He and others remain committed to increasing the dialogue, but he has heard from people on both sides that don’t believe they can meet with each other.
He sees signs of hope, including people reaching out from both sides to offer condolences after someone lost a family member.
“The movement is still strong, and I’m very proud about that,” he said. “The need for that has never been greater.”
Newhouse also talked about his vote to impeach President Donald Trump. While many of his constituents were upset, he called it a vote of conscience.
He made the vote with a heavy heart after having worked with the president’s office on several projects, but he felt he needed to take a stand.
While Newhouse said he believes many people were in D.C. for a peaceful protest, he felt the president did not react to the riot like he should have, including calling for reinforcements for the overwhelmed U.S. Capitol Police.
He also pointed out that shortly after a tweet from the president blaming Vice President Mike Pence, people began chanting to hang the vice president.
“I just felt like there was no other response,” he said. “It was justified by the actions we saw last week.”
Newhouse said they are going to lean on groups like the civility caucus to help mend the divides in the nation. He hopes the group’s common bonds and ability to respect each other will win the day.
He urged them not to hide their light and to take their message to the public.
“It’s not a given that the United States goes on forever,” he said. “I think every single one of us as Americans needs to step up to preserve what we have.”
Members hope to spread their message throughout the Tri-Cities in coming weeks. Anyone interested in the group can contact Raffa at info@justinraffa.com
This story was originally published January 19, 2021 at 12:11 PM.