Is the The New Civility Doomed to Fail?
If you know anything at all about politics today, you know that it is growing more and more partisan. However, in this staunch partisanship there is also increasing polarization and unlike the dream the founding fathers of this country had, opposing sides spend more time launching salvos at each other rather than sharing different sides of the argument to reach a solutions that works for everyone.
This is the reality of politics these days, but it is the aim of something called The New Civility to change all of that and get the political discourse back to something that resembles a productive process. The question people have is will a step as simple as refusing to call people ugly, hateful names really do much turn around the political climate in this country. The truth is that there are no real answers. While being nice to each other is all well and good, can it be as simple as that?
There is much debate. The debate in many cases is if The New Civility is even necessary. Many people, in light of the recent attempted murder of an Arizona politician, has raised concerns that anti government rhetoric was the seed that gave fruit to this hateful and violent act. However, as with most things political, there are no real answers to if any sort of speech positive or negative would have prevented this deranged person from attempting this terrible action.
Some say that anti government comments created this situation , while other dismiss this as a opportunity that their opponents are seizing on to exploit a delicate situation and shut them up so to speak. The truth, while it more than likely lies somewhere in the middle but with all that being equally, will a new civil tone make any difference.
The New Civility is a good idea, in principle, but it may be hard to gain any sort of steam. In addition, it may have had to many lofty hopes pinned on it to ever possibly succeed. It may have too lofty of expectations to ever have a chance of working. However, whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, liberal or conservative, you would have to agree that being nice, even in conflict would be a welcomed change.
