State Auditor Rob Sand is calling on his fellow Democrats to think carefully about how they talk about politics and be focused on having reasonable conversations.
“When was the last time you got convinced that you were wrong because somebody yelled at you about it?” Sand asks.
Sand was among the speakers at this week’s Progress Iowa virtual fundraiser that was, in part, a training session for activists in how to create social media content that gets positive online reactions. Sand said “needling and yelling” aren’t ways to get people to consider a different point of view.
“I like the TV show Ted Lasso and I’m going just to be totally honest I didn’t know that Walt Whitman said to be curious, not judgmental until I heard about it from Ted Lasso,” Sand said, “but I really like that quote.”
Sand said most of the people scrolling through Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites aren’t posting comments, they’re reading what others have typed. “I’m not saying that we can’t be mad. I’m not saying that we don’t get angry at times,” Sand said. “I’m not saying any of that, but we have to be careful if we really care about this world and about making people’s lives better as opposed to just ourselves and expressing ourselves.”
Sand has not yet announced whether he will seek a second term as state auditor in 2022 or run for governor.