Think our current presidential political landscape is unprecedented, and worse than it’s ever been?
On Sunday, the Highline Historical Society put on a presentation, “American Rage — Division and Anger in US Politics.” Presented by Washington State University professor of political science Cornell Clayton, the program compared the current period of political incivility with other flashpoints in American history to prove how incivility has served as a catalyst to move the nation forward when other means had failed.
“I think we can all agree that incivility is around us everywhere in politics,” he began. “You know it’s bad when the people who seem most civil are the comedians, such as Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.”
Incivility is a symptom not a cause; and the relationship between incivility and democracy is complex.
There is also a problem called “tribal thinking.” An example of that is Obamacare. All Republican congresses voted against it continually, however, it was a Republican idea to begin with. It wasn’t about the merits of the plan, it was about the people who proposed it.