In the past decade, shouting matches have replaced civil discourse and insults have echoed louder than ideas. When did our country get to a place where disagreement meant dehumanization? More importantly, how can we get back to a place where we share common ideals of respect and decency?
Government officials are more rewarded for confrontation than they are collaboration. We measure their success not by principle, but by how effectively they can vilify someone else to win a vote – and it’s led to an erosion of political civility.
The 2024 election showed just how divided our democracy is, with the electorate split between two polarizing candidates. President Donald Trump won 49.8% of the popular vote, while former Vice President Kamala Harris won 48.3% of the popular vote, according to the Federal Election Commission.
As a nation, it has become common for people to look to our elected officials for cues on how to treat others, especially those with differing opinions. The rise in incivility can be traced back to the start of the 2016 presidential political campaigns.
On both sides, we’ve seen encouragement of mistreatment, deeming it acceptable to tear each other down with hateful comments. How can we learn to move forward with political civility when our elected officials are not leading by example?
Restoring civility doesn’t mean pretending there aren’t drastic differences but recognizing those differences don’t make us enemies. We don’t need everyone to agree on all issues; to ask that would be impossible. What we need is a shared understanding that a country works best when we treat one another with dignity.
Civility is not a lack of passion.
It’s not a weakness.
And it’s not silence.
Civility is the foundation of a healthy democracy. It gives us the space to stand firm in our beliefs, to speak passionately and to be heard without being belittled. Civility is understanding that disagreement is inevitable, but disrespect is a choice.
Through the past few years, we’ve seen multiple demonstrations of protest, some civil and some violent.
Messages of violence have grown prevalent in our society due to political divide. Following George Floyd’s death in 2020, racially-charged police brutality was a topic that deeply divided Americans. Protests turned violent, resulting in fires, riots and looting across the United States.
On Jan. 6, 2021, supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in order to disrupt the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory, according to the BBC. Capitol police sent out an evacuation warning, and the Secret Service evacuated Vice President Mike Pence from the floor as protesters began breaking windows and kicking down doors.
Years later, protests still remain violent and destructive. Tesla vehicles have been set ablaze and vandalized upon the appointment of Tesla’s owner, Elon Musk, as overseer of the Department of Government Efficiency, according to AP News.
Others have practiced peaceful demonstrations through civil marches like the nationwide ‘Hands Off!’ protests, pushing back against Trump and Elon Musk’s government cuts, according to NPR.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have hosted a series of rallies through their “Fight the Oligarchy” tour, targeted towards discussing where America goes from the state of power and influence in the country today, according to the New York Times.
The tour brought nearly 30,000 attendees to Folsom, CA, with people lining up for hours and camping out in order to show their support for the cause.
There is a clear line between civil protest and destructive protests. Destroying property results in villainization and escalating pushback. Civil demonstration practices our freedom of speech and assembly, protected under the First Amendment.
Restoring civility won’t be easy. It will take time, effort and understanding. We model the kind of world we want to live in through our actions. We model it through disagreeing with respect, asking more questions than we answer and holding each other to a higher standard.
The power of our democracy relies on its electorate: everyone one of us. We have the power to change the political climate and how we consider conflicting ideas. The need for a civil political climate is more important than ever with today’s polarizing politics.
The responsibility of restoring civility does not rest solely in the hands of elected officials, it begins with each one of us. It starts with the humility of understanding that we may not always be right, the willingness to listen with an open mind, and the resolve to do the work of strengthening our democracy from the ground level.