Just HOW RUDE has today's life become? And just how much is the tone of our politics to blame? Our Cover Story is reported by Martha Teichner:
Does it sometimes feel as if our politics has us all backed into our ideological corners? Does it seem as if insults and name-calling have taken the place of civil dialogue – that incivility has gone viral?
Whether it's coming from the President of the United States or somebody in a restaurant, you may be disturbed by it all. But should you be alarmed?
Even that's a touchy subject.
"I think the country is in crisis," said New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg, who recently wrote that "it's less a result of a breakdown in civility than a breakdown of democracy."
- We have a crisis of democracy, not manners (New York Times, 06/25/18)
"I think the demand for civility can be used as a tool of oppression when it only goes in one direction – when you demand civility from the ruled, but you don't demand civility from the rulers," Goldberg said.
An unapologetic liberal, Goldberg thinks it's just fine that presidential spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders was not welcomed at the Red Hen restaurant, and that Congresswoman Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, has called for confrontation.
"This shows to me this kind of surreal loop of disinformation that we're in," Goldberg said. "Trump then says 'Maxine Waters has basically told people to attack members of my administration, she should be careful of what she wishes for.' If there is any threat of violence there, it's clearly coming from Donald Trump, and it wouldn't be the only time that Donald Trump has kind of outright threatened protesters."
"I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They'd be carried out on a stretcher, folks!"
"So, we're missing the point by talking about manners and civility?" asked Teichner.
"It's not a crisis that members of this administration can't go to a restaurant without being heckled," she replied. "It's a crisis that those hecklers don't have any other way to reach them."
Constitutional lawyer Alan Dershowitz, a lifelong Democrat, caused a bit of a curfuffle after complaining about being shunned by his Martha's Vineyard neighbors for defending President Donald Trump's civil liberties, an argument he makes in his new book, "The Case Against Impeaching Trump" (Hot Books).
- Sarah Sanders' restaurant encounter kicks off debate about confronting Trump allies ("CBS Evening News," 06/25/18)
- Alan Dershowitz says Martha's Vineyard is "shunning" him over Trump (New York Times, 07/03/18)
- American flag burned outside U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters' L.A. office (CBS News, 07/19/18)
"I don't care about being shunned, I don't care about not being invited to parties. What I care about is the big issue of trying to silence Americans who have a different point of view. President Trump encourages incivility by his name-calling, by his mocking of people. The appropriate response to that is not incivility on the other side."
So, what is?
"Michelle Obama put it very well when she said, 'When they go low, we go high.'" Dershowitz replied.
Dershowitz argues that nothing about the current political climate justifies incivility.
"I'm nearly 80 years old. I've lived through many times. And every era people say, 'In these times, this is special. In these times, they're detaining Japanese-Americans in detention centers. In these times there's segregation.' If we allow that to operate, the 'in these times' approach, everything would be 'in these times,' and we would live in a society of incivility. There is nothing special about these times."
Keith Bybee, a professor at the Syracuse University College of Law and author of "How Civility Works" (Stanford University Press), says what we are seeing now is a revolution in manners. "But maybe a better way to describe it is a gerrymandering of the boundaries of polite society," he said.
Complete article > https://www.cbsnews.com/news/will-politics-be-the-death-of-civility/
