A culture of civility
By Doug Wilson
Blamers. Idiots. Morons. These and other invectives are often used to describe the “other side” in the battle royal that is modern politics. It is downright fashionable in 2006 to push the envelope of extremism just far enough to get people to read your stuff, laugh out loud, and then, of course, affirm why “we” are right and “they” are wrong. The politician, columnist or activist who can put down the other side with deft sarcasm or clever derogatory labels is often viewed within his or her peer group as the most loyal and dedicated of “believers.”
Psychologists call this phenomenon “splitting”: You make people either all good or all bad. And it starts at an early age: You hate your first grade teacher; you love your friend. Maturity tells us, however, that most of us float somewhere between “all good” and “all bad”. Call it the integrated self. Still in politics we somehow manage to get stuck in a vicious cycle of praising the “all good” politician while demonizing the “all bad” opponent. For instance, conservatives despise Ted Kennedy; liberals hate Rick Santorum. When Bill Clinton was president there were people who couldn’t stand to even look at him. Today, a similar antipathy is aimed at President Bush.
It’s all symptomatic of our crumbling culture of civility. Indeed, I recently heard former Secretary of State Colin Powell say in a speech that he fears we are losing that culture. We are splitting into camps that make the other side all good or all bad, he said.
While these political “food fights” are not new in Washington, history tells us that Congress used to fight all day over ideas and then go out for dinner afterward and actually enjoy each other’s company. Ronald Reagan was famous for fighting with Tip O’Neil during the day and then inviting him over for a beer after 5:00. Ed Meese, Reagan’s former chief policy advisor, once told me that the president and house leader were adversaries before 5:00 and friends after 5:00.
So how did we get here from there? A few things come to mind:
Limited inter-party interaction...
...Media driven partisanship...
...Search for a common enemy...
OTOH from the Comments section-
Civility in life
Your comments do you credit as a human being. I applaud you concern that civility has gone out of style and we are all the worse off for it. However, I have to say that in the political arena the civility you discuss in politics was somewhat of an anomaly in American history. Washington and especially Lincoln would have loved the level of civility that exists today. These men you discuss came from a paradigm that was created as a direct result of them being products of the depression and the Second World War. I think you will find the rest of history was not so gracious. No personal attack was too extreme. Untruthful and unwholesome personal attacks against family members were not uncommon. It is easy to understand how fights and even duels were not uncommon in days gone by. This was in an age when good manners were held in the highest esteem. Civility has had its ups and downs, but that time period you discuss was somewhat of an anomaly in history.
The culture of civility in history
I'm pretty much used to the average citizen's moaning about "name-calling" in politics, but I expect better from a TH writer. There is nothing new under the sun, as an ancient book of wisdom says. Here's what politicians said about each other in the past:
Thomas Paine on George Washington: "As to you, sir, treacherous in private friendship and a hypocrite in public life, the world will be puzzled to decide whether you are an apostate or an imposter: whether you have abandones good principles, or whether you ever had any."
John Adams on Washington: "He is too illiterate, unread, unlearned for his station and reputation."
Alexander Hamilton on John Adams: "Well known are his disgusting egotism, distempered jealousy, ungovernable indiscretion, and vanity without bonds."
Thomas Jefferson on John Adams: "He is distrustful, obstinate, excessively vain, and takes no counsel from anyone."
Thomas Jefferson on Andrew Jackson: "He is one of the most unfit men I know for such a place."
Andrew Jackson on Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun: "I have only two regrets: that I have not shot Henry Clay or hanged John C. Calhoun."
John Quincy Adams on John Tyler: "Tyler is a political sectarian of the slave-driving, Virginian, Jeffersonian school, principled against all improvementm with all the interests and passions and vices of slavery rooted in his moral and political constitution."
Theodore Roosevelt on Benjamin Harrison: "He is a cold-blooded, narrow-minded, prejudiced, obstinate, timid old psalm-singing Indianapolis politician."
Theodore Roosevelt on William McKinley: "McKinley shows all the backbone of a chocolate eclair."
Theodore Roosevelt on William Howard Taft: "Taft meant well, but he meant well feebly."
Theodore Roosevelt on Woodrow Wilson: "He is an utterly selfish and cold-blooded always."
William Howard Taft on WIlson: "That mulish enigma, that mountain of egotism and selfishness who lives in the White House."
Robert Taft on Harry S Truman: "It defies all common sense to send that roughneck ward politician back to the WHite House."
Harry S Truman on Dwight D. Eisenhower: "The trouble with Eisenhower is he's just a coward. He hasn't got any backbone at all."
Eisenhower on Truman and FDR: "I don't think the people want to be listening to a Roosevelt, sounding as if he were one of the apoostles, or the partisan yipping of a Truman."
Hubert Humphrey on LBJ: "He could take a bite out of you bigger than a T-bone steak and the very next day he would put his arms around you like a long-lost brother."
Harry S Truman on Richard Nixon: "Nixon is a shifty-eyed g0dd@mned liar, and people know it. He's one of the few in the history of this country to run for high office talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time and lyiing out of both sides... I don't think the S.O.B. knows the difference between telling the truth and lying."
Lyndon Johnson on Gerald Ford: "He played too much football with the helmet off.... Jerry's the only man I ever knew who can't walk and chew gum at the same time."
(All quotes from THE PEOPLE'S ALMANAC, THE PEOPLE'S ALMANAC #2, & THE PEOPLE'S ALMANAC #3.) |
