Poisoning American Civility One Day At a Time

Americans are reminded ad nauseam that we are a nation divided. There is no agreement on any issue. Pundits of varying intelligence urge us not to discuss politics. The subject is too incendiary for even the family dinner table. Hunker in a bomb proof bunker until the presidential election is decided.  

Those who carp about divisions in our country never cracked a book on American history.  The United States has been disunited for most of its 247 years.  After the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860,  seven states seceded and the bloodiest war in the nation's history killed 618,222 Americans.

In 1968, the Democratic Party convention meeting in Chicago turned bloody as protestors fought with local police and national guardsmen. Tear gas was used to disperse thousands who commandeered Lincoln Park. Inside the convention, there was raucous infighting over the seating of state delegations.  

Our democracy has survived these earthquakes as well as hundreds of political aftershocks.  Division is a natural outgrowth of America's brand of democracy.  Even during World War II when America outwardly was united, there were voices of dissent in the country and in our politics. 

Step back and ask yourself: Why is the country divided today?  If you pin the blame on one of the two candidates for president, you have fallen for the partisan media's mindless doctrine. America's current divisions, like many in the past, are the byproduct of failed institutions.  

Today's media is biased, hyper-partisan and devoid of journalistic principles.  Throw social media in the mix and the result is a toxic brew which poisons politics and feeds conflict.  Americans who still care about information and news are left to sort through bins of partisan garbage to find a kernel of truth.  

Coverage of politics evokes negativity and stokes the worst human emotions.  Daily controversies are ginned up by the media to generate clicks and drive viewership numbers.  Broadcasters, newsrooms and social media influencers treat politics as a bloodsport.  

The media coverage of society, politics, issues and policy is designed to sort people into categories.  If we view America by looking in the media crockpot, we are destined for sharper divisions, perverse political discourse,  and mental stress.  

But history informs us that America's nascent media was not much more distinguished. In 1796 presidential election scandalous broadsheets were used to mercilessly smear the combatants John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. One newspaper claimed Adams wanted to become king. Sound familiar?

Congress takes no back seat to the media when it comes to name-calling and combustible rhetoric. We the people elect the 535 members of the House and Senate.  Each year the ideological center becomes smaller until it now resembles a pinprick. Lawmakers who seek compromise are voted out of office.

Congressional elections are becoming contests of the South Poles of both parties.  Each primary season Republican and Democrats vote for candidates who are more partisan.  Some would use the pejorative "extreme" to describe the electoral transition.  But, what does extreme mean today?

Elected officials must pass their party's litmus test on the issues.  If a lawmaker is not ideologically pure, then a primary opponent uses a wedge issue to displace the incumbent.  Our politics are more polarized and less civil.  Don't put all the onus on politicians.  Voters are the enemy of accommodation.

Lawmakers and the media have adopted incendiary political language that inflames public opinion.  Phrases such as far left liberal, ultra-conservative, MAGA and "woke" politicians are the equivalent of carpet bombing our politics.  Such labels do not promote dialogue or civility.   

Every national election, including the current campaign, brings out the loathsome in America.  Negativism is the grist feeding political advertising.  Pundits claim positive ads don't motivate voters, so slick campaign managers insist on a steady diet of acerbic, dreary, personal attack advertising.   

Today's ad campaigns are volcanic, but in 1964 a TV ad by Democrat President Lyndon Johnson figuratively reduced his opponent Barry Goldwater to ashes. The ad, dubbed "Daisy," featured a little girl and a nuclear mushroom cloud ignited by the Republican.

There is little new in American democracy, except the admonition not to discuss politics.  Our senses are too delicate to have conversations with friends, acquaintenaces.  Surely, you have seen unruly eruptions everywhere from school board meetings to city councils to the halls of Congress.

As a result, we have become a country of political tribalism.  People are less willing to see those of opposing views as human beings rather than enemies or dunderheads. Americans should stop taking their cues from the media and politicians and become their better selves.  

We should heed the advice of the aforementioned Thomas Jefferson:

"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as a cause for withdrawing from a friend."

Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

In light of the looming stalemate over extending the Bush tax cuts, the mainstream media has resurrected catcalls about political polarization.  If Republicans and Democrats could just get along, the nation would be better off, goes the media's disingenuous whine.

The talking heads and their keyboarding cousins act as if the current discord is a new phenomena.  Many claim today's churlish political climate is the worst ever.  Pundits pine for the days when bipartisanship was a Washington hallmark.  

The problem with the media's hypothesis is that it's sheer nonsense.  American politics, for better or worse, have always been fractured, chaotic and emotionally charged.  Sharp divisions between the parties have existed for as long as their has been a democracy.  It is a deliberate distortion to suggest otherwise.

The dirty little secret is that the news outlets have a vested interest in creating political dissension because they believe confrontation lures viewers and sells papers.  Reporters seek out those with opposing views, the more extreme the better, to produce compelling stories dripping with controversy.

That's why the media shoulders much of the blame for Americans' frustration with the tone of political discourse.  Online, on radio, in print and over the airwaves the constant negative media drumbeat has shaped the public's view of Washington's political stew.

There is no denying the media's influence.  Most Americans depend exclusively on big media for their news about Beltway politics. Media conglomerates belch political drivel almost non-stop, 24-hours a day.  That is a relatively new development, but the politics have never been polite.   

In fact, there has always been mean-spirited edginess to American politics.  President John Adams was skewered for being toothless and senile by his opponents.  Andrew Jackson was branded a jackass so often that the donkey became the symbol for the Democratic Party.

Don't forget Thomas Jefferson's running mate Aaron Burr shot and killed Alexander Hamilton over political skulduggery.  A trademark of the American political experience has been partisanship, name-calling and bitter personal disputes.  Like it or not, democracies are often messy like that.

Many in the media lay the blame for the current partisanship at the feet of the two parties.  Both are accused of adhering to entrenched political ideology instead of embracing compromise.  This too is a misguided notion perpetuated by the lame-stream media.

Throughout history, the two parties have more often that not embraced positions that are polar opposites. Think slavery and abolition during President Lincoln's tenure.  Or the row over big government when President Franklin Roosevelt presided over the country.  

Actually, competing ideologies are a good thing because it gives voters a clear choice.  When the two parties have been in harmony, the media and voters grumble there is not "a dime's worth of difference" between them.  You can't have it both ways.

Despite the natural tension between political parties, the nation's elected leaders have managed in the past to put aside acrimonious differences and work together.  In every case, there has been a president willing to risk political capital to negotiate the compromise.  Examples abound in recent years.

President Ronald Reagan famously collaborated with Democrat House Speaker Tip O'Neil to make changes in Social Security, despite opposition on both sides of the aisle.  President Bill Clinton and his nemesis House Republican leader Newt Gingrich joined together to pass a landmark welfare reform bill.

Even the much maligned George W. Bush reached across the party divide to Democrat Senator Ted Kennedy in passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, establishing national education standards for public schools.

Which brings us to today's political impasse in Washington.

President Barrack Obama cannot point to a single example during the last four years when his leadership was critical in reaching a middle ground on any national issue.  His signature Obama Care law was jammed down the throats of Republicans.

If the media really wants to find out why the current House and Senate are so dysfunctional, they need look no further than 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  The truth is President Obama has no intention of trying to mediate for the grand solutions championed by the American media elite.

He is the chief reason we can't all just get along.