[Salon] DECLINE OF CIVILITY THREATENS AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

DECLINE OF CIVILITY THREATENS AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
                                           BY
                           ALLAN C. BROWNFELD
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Our democratic political system is the oldest in the world. No other country today lives under the same political system as it did in the 18th century. But democracy is fragile. It requires respect for difference of opinion and tolerance of views with which we disagree. When civility declines, democracy is threatened. Those who study American history understand this very well. After all, we have been there before.

Many historians argue that the Civil War really began on May 22, 1856, when Rep. Preston Brooks of South Carolina entered the chamber of the U.S. Senate and beat Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts nearly to death with his cane. The reason for Brooks’ action was Sumner’s anti-slavery speech in which he called Sen. Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois a “noisome, squat and nameless animal,” and suggested that Sen. Andrew Butler of South Carolina—-Brooks’ cousin—-was in love with “the harlot of slavery.”

Brooks’ attack exposed the degree to which Americans in the 1850s lived in separate realities. Newspapers in the South justified what Brooks had done and made him a hero. The Northern press did the same for Sumner. Writing before the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, commentator Charles Lane notes that, “Our broken polity has not yet produced one such climactic breakdown in civility, but we seem to be on our way there, and because so many people seem to relish that…it’s important to be as clear as possible about the causes and potential consequences. Civility spreads as a democratic norm, on the basis of consensus, when most people involved in politics share broad goals and a belief in the overall legitimacy of the political process. They are more likely to disagree, when they do, without being disagreeable.”

The broad consensus that prevailed between the end of World War 11 and the end of the Cold War has broken down as has civility in public discourse. Civility involves a respect for others and for differing opinions. At the age of 16, George Washington set down his “110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.”    His first rule was: “Every action done in company ought to be with some sign of respect to those that are present.”

Harvard law professor Stephen Carter defines civility as: “An attitude of respect, even love, for our fellow citizens.” Philosophy professor Cheshire Calhoun argues that civility involves “communicating an attitude of respect toward others.” At the nation’s very beginning, John Adams saw that without civility, no government could survive. In 1798 he wrote: “We have no government capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

The Anglo-Irish statesman Edmund Burke declared that, “Manners are of more importance than laws…The law touches us but here and there , and now and then. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refund us. They give us their whole form and color to our lives. According to their quality, they aid morals, they supply them, or they totally destroy them. Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom.”

Magnanimity in politics is difficult to find at the present time. For the first time in our history, a defeated candidate for president refused to accept the results of the election. He continues to claim “fraud,” although his own Attorney General, a conservative Republican, declares that there is no evidence whatever to sustain this claim, and dozens of courts have rejected such an argument.   We have seen death threats against prominent Republicans such as former Vice President Mike Pence, the leader of the Arizona legislature, the Secretary of State of Georgia, and others for simply upholding the law. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) reported about a threat mailed to his home promising to execute him, his wife and their 5-month old son. “There is violence in the future,’ said Kinzinger. “And until we get a grip on telling people the truth , we can’t expect any differently.”

Consider the decline in our political life manifested in a primary election in Missouri for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate. The former governor of Missouri, Eric Greitens, who was forced to leave office because of charges of marital abuse, is running an ad featuring himself and armed camouflage-clad men breaking into a house , throwing what look like stun grenades in search of Republicans who don’t sufficiently support his views.

Gun in hand, he declares in the ad: “ I’m Eric Greitens, Navy SEAL, and today we’re going RINO ( Republicans in name only) hunting.” In the ad, Greitens stands outside a home with a team of others dressed in tactical gear and whispers: “The RINO feeds on corruption and is marked by the stripes of cowardice…Get a RINO hunting permit.”

Greitens has a history of violence. He has been accused of domestic violence by his ex-wife, including physical violence toward their children. He has denied those allegations, but resigned as governor of Missouri in disgrace.

Death threats against those with whom political partisans disagree are growing throughout the country. More more prominent politicians, Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, are accompanied by armed guards wherever they go.

The recent death of Mark Shields. one of Washington’s most respected political commentators, was a reminder of how American politics used to be—-in the years when it worked. Shields, a liberal, often matched wits with conservatives such as Robert Novak, Pat Buchanan, David Gergen and Paul Gigot. For almost 20 years at the “PBS News Hour” he was featured with David Brooks of the New York Times. In 2012 he and Brooks received an award for “civility in public life,” presented by Pennsylvania’s Allegheny College. In accepting the award, Shields said he always sought to remember that “in every discussion that the person on the other side probably loves their country as much as you love our country; that they care about their children’s and grandchildren’s future as much as you do; and that you don’t demonize somebody on the other side.”

The political life I remember now, sadly, seems to be gone. I worked in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives for many years. My column first appeared in ROLL CALL, the newspaper of Capitol Hill. I worked with such Republicans as two future presidents, George H.W. Bush and Gerald Ford. They did not view their Democratic colleagues as ,”enemies.” Their goal was to craft legislation and pursue policies which were best for the country—-and to convince as many Democrats as they could to join them. It was this philosophy which helped us win World War 11 and the Cold War and move forward with civil rights. The friendship of Ronald Reagan and House Speaker Tip O’Neill, for example,   helped the country to move forward.

Unless we restore civility to our public life, the future of our democracy is in real trouble. We had a devastating Civil War in the 19th century. Let us hope that those who see parallels between our current political life and those days are proven wrong. It is up to all of us to learn the important lessons our history can teach us.
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