Old_Trapper70
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2014
- Messages
- 2,383
I think the political climate spoken of here is a reflection of society as a whole, not just the political community:
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/290456-civil-politics
"In 1856, Sen. Charles Sumner was brutally beaten unconscious on the Senate floor, the world’s greatest deliberative body, because he had the courage to speak out against slavery. For decades, the House Un-American Activities Committee “investigated” fellow Americans, accusing them of communist sympathies and blacklisting them from Hollywood and public life, and the demagoguery of Sen. Joseph McCarthy was a dark chapter in the history of the United States.
Today’s incivility has taken on different but no less insidious dimensions. Vigorous and even fierce debate has always been part of the process. Increasingly, however, actions and rhetoric are employed not in service of ultimately reaching resolution to a national problem, but rather to entrench all-or-nothing propositions and politically demolish the other side.
Instead of settling policy arguments with civil exchanges, lawmakers appear on the news to decry their opponents. Far from forging common ground, these arguments devolve into “my-way-or-the-highway” clashes which are a road to nowhere. Incivility removes the capacity to ultimately transcend our differences. So when the democratically-elected representatives of the most powerful nation in the world dispense with civility and the aspiration of building consensus, we all lose."
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/290456-civil-politics
"In 1856, Sen. Charles Sumner was brutally beaten unconscious on the Senate floor, the world’s greatest deliberative body, because he had the courage to speak out against slavery. For decades, the House Un-American Activities Committee “investigated” fellow Americans, accusing them of communist sympathies and blacklisting them from Hollywood and public life, and the demagoguery of Sen. Joseph McCarthy was a dark chapter in the history of the United States.
Today’s incivility has taken on different but no less insidious dimensions. Vigorous and even fierce debate has always been part of the process. Increasingly, however, actions and rhetoric are employed not in service of ultimately reaching resolution to a national problem, but rather to entrench all-or-nothing propositions and politically demolish the other side.
Instead of settling policy arguments with civil exchanges, lawmakers appear on the news to decry their opponents. Far from forging common ground, these arguments devolve into “my-way-or-the-highway” clashes which are a road to nowhere. Incivility removes the capacity to ultimately transcend our differences. So when the democratically-elected representatives of the most powerful nation in the world dispense with civility and the aspiration of building consensus, we all lose."
