America is at crossroads of civility, intolerance
intolerant and often ignore or distort the facts.
National fact-checking organizations have documented more than 3,200 lies told by the president since taking office, including two misleading claims per minute at a recent rally in Duluth, Minnesota. Unfortunately, his polarizing language doesn’t seem to faze his millions of supporters or much of his political party.
Meanwhile, intolerant behavior is driven by other elected representatives of both political parties, such as Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, who has encouraged followers to actively harass Trump administration officials.
The net effect is that it infers permission to hate, intimidate and divide. Whether you are an immigrant who is discriminated against or a presidential press secretary who is denied admission to a restaurant, you are feeling the effects of intolerance.
As the number of intolerant acts seems to be increasing, one must ask if America is nearing a behavioral bottom. If so, how can we begin to reclaim higher-ground civic behavior that once characterized our democracy and served as a role model for the world?
In the past, Americans looked to trusted TV anchors and hosts to provide objective context for assessing contentious issues.
According to a March 2018 Monmouth University poll, however, none of the major cable television networks has a “trusted” rating of even 50 percent. (CNN was at 48 percent, MSNBC at 45 percent, Fox News at 30 percent.) Social media typically worsens the problem, as it offers a 24/7 forum to some bigoted, self-styled commentators whose pronouncements go unchecked.
What can be done to reverse the massive slide in trust and civility?
• In a democracy, change is validated in the voting booth. Between now and the upcoming midterm elections, we can insist on high-road behavior from candidates by telling them so at campaign events and ignoring negative fearmongering ads produced by both political parties. The repetition of lies by politicians and the media and special-interest groups that pander to them threatens to devalue the truth and create an alternative reality for uncritical believers.
• On a personal level, we must step outside the bubbles we live in and talk to those whose life experiences and views might differ greatly from our own. Houses of worship and numerous civic organizations hold events encouraging people to spend time with different segments of society. Substituting an outside-the-bubble activity in place of time spent on self-serving social media or socializing with people like us can build understanding and tolerance.
• The workplace offers one of the best venues for defeating intolerance. As America becomes increasingly diverse, we will encounter co-workers with different cultural, ethnic and racial backgrounds. Employers can be ambassadors for tolerance by hosting more get-to-know-you events, and they may find that workplace productivity and morale improve more in the process.
• If we cannot trust many elected officials to model civility and exercise a higher duty of care, we certainly can insist on such standards at home. Teaching the young kindness, respect for others, not taking everything personally, the importance of patience and attentive listening, and other elements of positive behavior and manners sow the seeds of tolerance in future generations. Inclusiveness begins at home and continues in schools and the workplace.
• One takeaway from the decades of advertising and marketing is that emotion is easier to embrace than fact-based logic. Business and the media can become leaders in the campaign for greater tolerance by focusing more on facts and inspirational behavior than on sensationalistic stories, fear-mongering ads and manipulative communications.
The soul of America is up for grabs. Do we have the will to lift it up?
Jim