Have we given up on civility?
Published 11:48 am Sunday, March 28, 2010
Politics is a contact sport, former President Bill Clinton has often noted. “You can’t complain about being attacked,” he counseled fellow Democrats in 2006.
Indeed, robust political debate is foundational to our system of self-governance. It’s bound to get rough at times, as it has throughout our great democracy’s history. We should never fear that.
But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t value civility. Or that we should tolerate blatantly boorish, offensive or destructive behavior.
The latter has been on sad display in recent days. Members of Congress had racial and sexual slurs hurled their way by protesters last weekend after voting for the health-care bill. Rep. Bart Stupak said he has received death threats. Rocks and bricks have reportedly been thrown through the windows of congressional district offices and party headquarters.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. The wingnuts who perpetrate such acts no doubt draw inspiration and encouragement from the increasingly nasty tone of our public discourse.
Talking heads on cable news channels hyperventilate from both ends of the political spectrum. Talk-radio egomaniacs seem to measure their worth by how loud they yell. The Web has made it easy for anyone to spew venomous rhetoric — including on this newspaper’s site.
Political operatives of all stripes fire off press releases accusing opponents of the worst possible motives and stretching truth beyond the breaking point. They know that the more outrageous they are, the more they’ll fire up their base. It’s all about getting attention, money and votes, about winning that day’s battle of sound bites. Integrity? How naive.
It’s time for leaders throughout society to push back. Parents, educators, clergy — anyone who helps shape young minds — should seek opportunities to teach and model civility and common courtesy as a value.
Elected leaders clearly must disavow hate speech and violence, and not half-heartedly. But they need to go further, checking their own rhetoric and engaging in some real soul-searching about the true meaning of leadership.
Even in a polarized atmosphere, honest differences of philosophy and ideology can be debated without resorting to childish name-calling, as has been proven by great leaders throughout history. Those who made a career out of appealing to people’s darker tendencies didn’t leave an enviable legacy.
Our political discourse is an expression of our values as a nation. As a nation, and as individuals, we need to ponder whether the values on display these days are really ours.
