Americans claim, overwhelmingly, to value civility in politics.
According to the Arizona Republic, Eighty percent of Americans surveyed believe that political campaigns are uncivil and many believe they will worsen, according to a June 2011 poll conducted for Weber Shandwick and Powell Tate, two Washington-based public-affairs and research firms. The poll found that 85 percent believe politics in general has become uncivil. Nearly 9 in 10 said that their decisions in upcoming elections would be affected by a candidates behavior and the way he treats those with opposing opinions.
In a poll conducted in April 2010 for the Center for Political Participation at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, 95 percent say they believe civility in politics is important for a healthy democracy, and 87 percent say it is possible for people to disagree about politics respectfully.
Theres no doubt that disagreement can be expressed respectfully. Many institutions require such behavior, including Congress, although the standard there has deteriorated considerably in recent years.
If Americans want civility in the political arena, why dont they get it?
The primary answer is that civility isnt all they want. For example, when forced to choose between a candidate who is civil (say, Jimmy Carter) and one with the skills to govern well, voters begin to understand that they need more than a nice guy.
Still, even the most skilled candidates should be held to civil behavior. Certainly they possess that skill as well, and they can be pushed to use it.
As citizens ask for a civility in a demonstrable, measurable way, they can get to a place where an elected leader says, Ive got way too many constituents who want this to ignore it, Cassandra Dahnke, a co-founder of the Houston-based Institute for Civility in Government, told the Arizona Republic. [I]t will become politically expedient.
That would be a good thing, but the path to civility is not nearly so straight. Candidates benefit from the uncivil behavior of their supporters. Mitt Romney may never be the first choice of a majority of Republicans, but he can become the Republican nominee anyway by standing back as other candidates knock one another out of the race and as political action committees do a lot of the dirty work.
At that point, the not-favorite of the GOP, whoever that may be, will face off against Barack Obama, who also is not the most popular guy in the country, and neither has a great deal to promote. Victory depends primarily on opponents failure. Those candidates do not have to associate themselves directly with the forces that do the most damage. Corporations and committees can throw mud where it most benefits them, and because that money is very difficult to trace, voters cannot easily assess whether their interests are consonant with those anonymous investors who are buying political power.
Democracy is not well served when competing ideas are shouted down, scornfully dismissed without facts, or subtly undermined by anonymous disinformation. Only when voters can not only speak their minds but listen to one another respectfully will the best ideas rise to the top on their own merits.
Current campaign finance laws handicap voters, who can urge civility by not assigning credibility to people and groups who dont want to use real names. Citizens can make a difference in 2012 by urging candidates to disavow dirty politics and run on the issues. If elected, I will ... is a statement that demonstrates not only civility but responsibility, and it helps individuals who are still the only persons allowed to vote make informed decisions.
