The Bonnie and Bill Stubblefield Institute for Civil Political Communications at Shepherd University was launched in July of this year. As their web page asserts, the Institute was made possible by a generous gift from the Stubblefields, who currently reside in Berkeley County. Both have doctorates, with Bonnie having served 30 years in government at the US Geological Survey while Bill served 37 years in the Navy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. According to the Institute’s website, “prior to his retirement, Rear Admiral Stubblefield was in charge of NOAA’s aircraft and ships as well as the commissioned officers”. He later served as the president of the Berkeley County Council.

According to the Shepherd University website: “At all times, the Stubblefield Institute seeks to promote greater public awareness of how authentic, factual civil discourse across partisan divides lead to healthier, more productive debate and understanding.” The Institute has hosted two events thus far, the first in early October; the second was staged in early November. I attended the latter, which was held at the Frank Center at Shepherd featuring a debate between Mercedes Schlapp and Donna Brazile, moderated by the president of Shepherd University Mary Hendrix and introduced by local radio personality David Welch, of WRNR in Martinsburg, who also serves as a Director for the Institute.

Mercedes Schlapp served in the Trump administration as the White House Director of Strategic Communications. In July she left that post to work on the Trump campaign. She is a second generation American of Cuban descent – her father having spent six years in jail courtesy of the Cuban government. Her husband Matt is the chair of the American Conservative Union – the folks that present CPAC every year in Washington DC. She is a former Fox News contributor.

Donna Brazile is a current Fox News contributor. In October of 2016, while interim chair of the Democratic National Committee, CNN let her go after it was learned that she had used her position to leak debate questions to Hillary Clinton, then candidate for president. Upon joining Fox she had this to say in an op-ed piece on the network’s website entitled “Why I am excited to join Fox News and take part in a civil - and sensible – debate”: “I fully admit that in my previous lives as a campaign staffer, presidential campaign manager and Democrat Party official, my own lack of civility in the heat of battle has been on full display. And it wasn’t pretty.”

On the face of it, this would appear to be a marquis event - two women of similar stature with very different world views coming together for civil discourse. Someone forgot to tell the audience. The debate, which lasted for an hour, primarily featured the commentary of Ms. Brazile. It was hard for Ms. Schlapp to get a word in edgewise. When she did, certain members of the audience would react. For example, in response to one of the questions put forth by Shepherd University President Hendrix, Ms. Schlapp commented that the impeachment inquiry, initiated by Democrats in congress, was being held behind closed doors. There was an outburst from the audience: “Get over it”. There were no such outbursts to the comments made by Brazile. So much for civility.

So while Brazile and Schlapp were civil to each other, certain members of the audience hadn’t caught on as to what the evening was all about. That said, the highlight of the evening for me was when Donna Brazile stated that Democrats are capitalists, although she did caveat that by conceding that there was a notable exception. Maybe two. To my mind there are more. Many more. Brazile was there to promote her book – there was a book signing afterward. That’s capitalism at work. However, when Donna Brazile asserts that Democrats are capitalists, I would be keenly interested in her definition of the term. One of the obstacles to civil discourse in today’s social climate is that we cannot find enough common ground - we no longer have common definitions for many common terms. Having a common language would go a long way toward promoting civility in public and political discourse.

All that said, I have to give the Stubblefield Institute credit. Promoting civil political communications isn’t going to be easy. But you have to start somewhere.