Easton residents usually argue, sometimes contentiously, about local issues, like any other small town, according to First Selectman David Bindleglass.
But a recent incident led to the town taking action after a town volunteer’s personal information was leaked.
“That form also included the person's social security number, and that caused a little bit of a ruckus, and so we established a committee to look at civility and protection of public officials,” Bindleglass said.
Bindelglass is a Democrat, and he along with municipal officials in other towns have taken action to promote more civil political cultures within their communities even before the recent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart, who is a Republican, has also called on residents to be more respectful.
But sometimes, even asking people to be nicer to each other can lead to backlash, as Stewart recently found out.
““I know that no matter what I say, will be met with people that disagree with what I have to say,” Stewart said. “That's just a reality of existing in this sphere of politics.”
Stewart released a statement days after a gunman fired shots at Trump, imploring residents to respect each other’s political differences, noting that outside residents can stand to learn from the “New Britain Way,” where she says residents can respectfully disagree.
But she also acknowledges the city’s divisive political culture, noting local officials before her time sometimes engaged in physical fights with each other. She said she made an effort to change that when she was first elected in 2013.
Stewart said her letter received a lot of positive feedback. But not everyone thought Stewart was justified in equating liberal and conservative rhetoric as the same.
“I received two really angry emails from women who lived in the state, not in New Britain, that were saying that all of this is happening because of the Republican Party's rhetoric.”
Bindleglass said the incident also led to town officials taking a civility pledge. Many residents, he said, condemned the act, even if their opinions differed on the severity of the incident.
But while he said many residents don’t argue about much besides local issues, social media, especially local Facebook pages, made political discourse more contentious.
However, Bindleglass says there’s a silver lining .
“There'll be 10 comments on a post, and generally, it'll be the same 10 people almost all the time,” Bindleglass said. “So I don't put a ton of stock in it.”
