Widspread civility would be major change for American politics
I miss political civility. I miss it in the same way I miss flying cars and talking horses. In the same way it’s possible to miss a sweet childhood fantasy that never really existed.
Pleas for civility have intensified over the past week in the wake of a Virginia restaurant booting Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, over her affiliation with President Donald Trump, and U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-California, recklessly urging supporters to “create a crowd” and “push back” on any Trump cabinet member seen in a restaurant, department store or gas station.
Trump, with his patented grace, responded by accusing the restaurant, the Red Hen, of having “filthy canopies.” He called Waters an “extraordinarily low IQ person.”
David Axelrod, the chief strategist for Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, tweeted that he was “amazed and appalled” by the number of progressives who applauded Sanders’ ouster from the Red Hen. Megyn Kelly devoted three days on the “Today” show to lamenting the “ongoing erosion of our cultural norms, like civility and respectful debate.”
All of this hand-wringing begs a question: When, exactly, was civility the norm in American politics?
Was it in 1804, when the vice president of the United States, Aaron Burr, shot and killed the former treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton?
Was it in 1856, when South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks brutally caned U.S. Sen. Charles Sumner, a Massachusetts abolitionist, on the floor of the Senate? Check this out for civility: The Richmond Whig reported at the time that Brooks had administered an “elegant and effectual caning” (apparently the best kind) and added, “The only regret we feel is that Mr. Brooks did not employ a horsewhip or a cowhide upon (Sumner’s) slanderous back.”
Was it in 1860, when a proStephen Douglas newspaper described Douglas’ presidential opponent, Abraham Lincoln, as a “horrid-looking wretch” who was “sooty and scoundrelly”?
Was it in 1912, when the Republican National Convention erupted into fistfights between the loyalists of William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt, leading to Roosevelt bolting the party?
Was it in 1968, when Chicago police officers billy-clubbed antiwar protesters outside the Democratic National Convention?
In truth, civility has never been a consistent part of American politics, apart from the kind of fake politeness that camouflaged backroom, backstabbing acts of strategic viciousness.
For example, Richard Nixon maintained a respectful tone toward outgoing President Lyndon Johnson in 1968, but, behind Johnson’s back, he enlisted Anna Chennault, a Chinese-born Republican activist, to secretly convince South Vietnamese officials to balk at Johnson’s last-ditch peace efforts.
Our politics haven’t become less civil. It’s all become more tribal.
Hubert Humphrey routinely found himself shouted down by hecklers — wielding “Dump the Hump” signs — during his 1968 presidential campaign. But it wasn’t partisan tribalism at work. Humphrey was a liberal Democrat being heckled, in many cases, by liberals who hated his support for the Vietnam War.
Back then, we at least shared the same media reference points. These days, you can shut out differing views and create your own customized media cocoon of confirmation bias.
Politics has become pure sport, and too many of us are relentless homers for our side.
Six years ago, a Virginia cookie shop called Crumb and Get It refused to serve then-Vice President Joe Biden because the owner disliked Biden’s politics. The Republican National Committee celebrated that snub on Twitter, and Paul Ryan, then the GOP nominee for vice president, invited Crumb and Get It’s owner to introduce him at a campaign event.
Republicans loved the idea of a prominent Democrat being denied service, but they’re disgusted when it happens to one of their own.
Similarly, in 2016, Trump incited the crowd at a South Carolina rally by taunting MSNBC reporter Katy Tur. Things grew so threatening for Tur that after the rally she needed Secret Service protection to get back to her car.
Republicans who are incensed with Waters this week should have spared a little anger for Trump back then.
If we could make our outrage a little less selective and our empathy a little more universal, we might just solve this socalled civility problem.