Bad Heckling Example #4: Mike DeWine Got Heckled at a Prayer Vigil for the Dayton Victims

A bunch of people heckled Ohio Governor Mike DeWine yesterday. They did a poor job of it.

I didn’t expect to write about bad heckling again so soon, nor under such horrible circumstances. Over the weekend, mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, both reportedly committed with powerful large-magazine rifles, reignited the gun control debate. Most Republicans, who are heavily supported by the National Rifle Association, have been hiding in their offices and refusing to talk about it. 

To his credit, Ohio's Republican Governor Mike DeWine, who has a history of both favoring and opposing gun control (he is a politician, after all), spoke at a prayer rally for the victims in Dayton. He made some vacuous comments. Doves were released. An excellent singer sang a lovely song.

Some crowd members cheered DeWine’s comments. Another group chanted “Do something,” loudly, over and over, while pumping their fists, for a few minutes. This interrupted the proceedings, made it hard for the speakers to continue, and was not prayerful.

Yes, on the one hand, DeWine’s speech or prayer - or whatever it was -  was insipid. Yes, at least the hecklers had some content. Conservative politicians sometimes have a few words after these tragedies: “thoughts and prayers” being the most common. That obviously isn't the answer. Citing evidence, liberals think that gun control is a partial answer. When they shouted “Do something,” the hecklers meant that words were not enough and they wanted governmental action. They wanted to nudge the governor along. That was good.

That does not, on the other hand, mean that they were good hecklers. They did a terrible job of heckling. Now, it was good to remind DeWine that wishy-washy public statements weren’t enough. It was good to demand action. Heckling is a quick way to put things right. But:

1. Their chant was, in its own way, as insipid as DeWine’s prayer/speech. “Do something?” How unimaginative can they get?

2. Also, you don’t heckle a prayer vigil. Period. Heckling a prayer vigil is pretty much the defining case of boorish heckling.

3. A good heckler spits out one quick, incisive, funny or thought-provoking comment and then gets quiet. DeWine's hecklers chanted long enough to interrupt the proceedings and prevent the speaker from being heard. That’s not true heckling. That was obstruction. That violated free speech principles. That was bad.

4. Finally, the protesters' heckling was neither witty or enlightening. Good hecklers have a twinkle in their eyes and a smirk on their faces. These guys were just angry.

So, give the Dayton hecklers one point for trying to put DeWine back on track. Give them a few hundred demerits for being boring, rude, and disruptive. They added little to the mass shooting debate. They looked bad. They sounded bad. They made liberals look bad.

Promise: today isn't the day, but, sooner or later, I will write about how to heckle properly. It can be done. All communication goes two ways, back and forth. Heckling, done right, helps two-way communication.