Mayor Denis Langlois of Fort Ann, a small upstate town, made a stupid and irresponsible comment on Facebook earlier today, calling Democratic voters “retarded.” The post, made on his private page, was screenshotted and spread like wildfire across the Internet.

Newsweek reported he switched up the script — Langlois said of the post: “I’m not doing it as an official, I’m doing it as a person. You can’t quote me as the mayor, you can only quote me as a person. As a mayor I wouldn’t say that, but as a person who believes in Republican values.”

First of all, an official is still a person. Second of all, people can be quoted in any and all contexts, especially if they hold an office.

He told The Post-Star, “If you write something and it gets me out of the mayor, I don’t care. … Whether it’s politically correct or not, it’s what I believe, and it doesn’t matter. I talk from my heart and my soul, and that’s all there is to it.”

This is another fine example of politicians who clearly don’t understand just how much weight, influence and responsibility their roles entail. Day in and day out, we hear politician after politician crying and complaining about how divided our country is and how divisive people are when they, the politicians, do absolutely nothing to change it.

All that talk is garbage and America is tired of hearing it. I would put more trust in preschoolers to respect each other than I would our Congress. Our politicians are supposed to be the best representatives of our country, what we stand for and how we conduct ourselves. Our politicians are supposed to serve as role models to future generations.

On both sides of the political spectrum, they’ve been everything but.

Politicians, and people in general, need to care about unifying our country. Using hateful and inappropriate language like this is stupid, divisive and distracting from the narratives we should be talking about.

Jaylon Coaxum is a freshman communications and rhetorical studies major. His column appears biweekly. He can be reached at jccoaxum@syr.edu.

Published on November 8, 2018 at 11:51 pm