Opinion: Trump is Voldemort at an event celebrating civility

On Tuesday, I attended a ceremony here in Washington, D.C., at which my alma mater, Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, awarded its Prize for Civility in Public Life to Vice President Joe Biden and Arizona Sen. John McCain. This is the fifth year in which the prize has been bestowed on public figures from both the left and the right “who argue passionately but respectfully for their beliefs.”

In their remarks, the honorees deplored the lack of civility in contemporary politics and paid tribute to one another. It was an edifying and sometimes poignant object lesson in bipartisan comity, one that I’m glad the college students in the audience were able to observe up close and personal.

McCain, a Republican, recalled how respectfully then-Sen. Biden, a Democrat, treated him on foreign trips when McCain served as the Navy’s liaison to the Senate and carried Biden’s bags.

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Speaking (surprise!) at greater length, Biden reminded the audience of how McCain civilly corrected a woman at a campaign rally in 2008 who suggested that Barack Obama wasn’t an American. McCain shot back: “No, ma’am, he’s a decent family man, [a] citizen who I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. And that’s what this campaign is all about.”

But as McCain and Biden spoke, I couldn’t help thinking of He Who Must Not Be Named at this event, and I don’t mean Lord Voldemort.

When it comes to coarsening public discourse, Donald Trump is in a class by himself: “Lyin’ Ted,” “Crooked Hillary,” “Little Marco.” If the Bizarro World awarded a prize for civility in public life, Trump would win, hands down.

Yet neither McCain nor Biden targeted Trump in their remarks. McCain, who is seeking reelection, has endorsed Trump, despite the fact that Trump questioned the former Vietnam POW’s heroism. (“I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said.) Knowing this, Biden wasn’t about to embarrass his co-awardee by taking on Trump.

But if Trump was absent in name, his malign presence hovered over the award ceremony. It’s hard to imagine that the students who listened to Biden and McCain extol civility and mutual respect didn’t visualize the candidate who is the living antithesis of those qualities.

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