The Death of Civility?

Yesterday, after months of wrangling, behind-the-scenes deal making, and striking partisanship, the House of Representatives passed the long-awaited health care reform bill. It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t pleasant. From the moment the president explained what the bill would and would not do, the spin began. If I hadn’t heard the speech and actually understood it, I might have been confused by what opponents were claiming. I might have even believed some of the rhetoric. But it was so inaccurate and distorted, I dismissed it out of hand.

Almost everything the president said was somehow flipped on its head and came out upside down and backwards. It would have been amusing if so many people hadn’t bought the upside-down version. By the time the bill was passed, few Americans seemed to know what it was designed to reform.

To say this was a divisive piece of legislation would be an understatement. Once again, the country seemed to split in half over a single issue. Congress certainly did, since not a single Republican voted for the bill. There was no room for dialogue or rationality. One was either for it or against it … with dramatic and deafening oratory.

OK. I can live with that. This is a country where we get to have our points of view and defend them or oppose them. But something seems to be happening lately that goes far beyond disagreement. Civil discourse has been replaced by mean spirited harangues.

In the middle of the president’s State of the Union address, a congressman yelled, “You lie!” At recent town hall meetings, representatives were shouted down and insulted. As the members of the House were voting yesterday, on the lawn outside the building, people were demonstrating with signs and epitaphs that were beyond bad taste, sometimes egged on by members of Congress. And, inside the House chamber, there was shouting, name-calling, and a complete absence of decorum.

What have we become? Where are our manners? What happened to restraint? It’s fine to have strong views and to stand up for them. It’s acceptable, even necessary, to debate. But in my view, the behavior of opponents to just about any issue has become deplorable and frightening. We are not a third-world country. We are not children. We do not call names and shout insults. It is not worthy of civilized adults and citizens of a democracy.

There is much to worry about these days, but this breakdown of civility in our society has reached the top of my list.