December 2011 Perspective
Letting us ‘reason together’
Hamilton emphasizes need for civility and civic participation
Former longtime congressman Lee Hamilton was to speak on world affairs at the statewide electric co-op annual meeting last month.
But the revered statesman had something else on his mind. That was the state of today’s civil discourse among politicians and the public — or rather, lack of it — and how it’s not only affecting the job Washington is doing, but how it affects the nation’s psyche and even threatens our representative democracy.
“Our public discourse is strident and polarized, coarse and sometimes just downright mean,” Hamilton said.
He noted, “George Washington set the gold standard for Americans in matters of civility.” Washington, he said, showed respect and dignity to all people. It goes back to the Prophet Isaiah, he said, “Come, let us reason together.”
“It doesn’t mean we all agree with one another … But treating one another civilly is how people come together and make decisions in our society,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton recounted sitting in meetings in the 1980s with President Ronald Reagan and House Speaker Tip O’Neill, both about as far apart ideologically as they came. And while both strongly stated their opinions, “I cannot remember a single time when either of these gentlemen raised their voices in anger,” he said, noting their meetings usually ended with each dosing out some Irish humor.
But the intensity of today’s politics has brought attacks that go beyond robust debate. Hamilton said the attacks on the intelligence, motivations and patriotism of political opponents create cynicism and lead to broader polarization. And the media, he said, only magnify these differences.
“What’s happened to the center?” he asked. “I think the American people are mostly in the middle. But our politics today leads you to think it is the extreme left or the extreme right that is in control of things.”
He said we need politicians today who can bring people together. And he said all Americans should encourage civil dialogue and stand up and object to even those politicians whose views they may agree with when bad manners and disrespect are brought into debates.
“I believe that representative democracy is the most worthy form of government … I believe self-government is a monumental achievement — monumental. It stands among the greatest achievements in the history of mankind. And it took a lot of sweat and blood and tears … to get there. But it does not automatically perpetuate itself. There isn’t any invisible hand up here guiding us always to make the right decisions.”
Hamilton said, “Citizens working together in a common objective — as you do in the rural electrics — is at the very heart of what this nation is all about.”
But working together, he noted, becomes almost impossible when political dialogue is poisoned by extreme partisanship and incivility. People become cynical and withdraw from political participation. And that’s the danger. He said our form of government requires participation. He said he doesn’t have all the answers for success, but he knows what will bring about failure.
He noted Lincoln wondered whether a nation dedicated to democracy could long endure in November 1863 during the Civil War.
“It was the operational question at Gettysburg. It is the operational question in November 2011. It is not written in the stars, my friends. It depends on us.... If we become a nation of spectators, we will surely fail.”