What Happened to Civility?

The organizers of The Center for Civil Discourse pen an op-ed in the Globe explaining why Friday’s National Forum is so vital:

The question isn’t whether civility in our public discourse is essential to the survival of our democracy. Clearly it is not. Nor does it matter whether earlier periods in our history were more or less civil than the one we are suffering through now. The crucial question is whether civility is a critical element in the success of our political system. Is it a defining feature of what can — and has — made us unusual? As Judge Learned Hand put it in a famous speech in Central Park at the height of World War II, “the spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias.”

Read the full column here.

Arthur Goldwag, author of the new book “The New Hate: A History of Fear and Loathing on the Populist Right,” argues that the racist and conspiracist approach of today’s far-right pundits is largely the same as it was 50 years ago. Their language and theories are taken (sometimes verbatim) from right-wing populist vitriol at early times in American and European history, dealing in tropes well-worn by pre-WWII American Nazis, Joe McCarthy and fanatical anti-Catholic and anti-Masonic Protestant preachers of the 19th century. (via Inside the new hate - History - Salon.com)

Arthur Goldwag, author of the new book “The New Hate: A History of Fear and Loathing on the Populist Right,” argues that the racist and conspiracist approach of today’s far-right pundits is largely the same as it was 50 years ago. Their language and theories are taken (sometimes verbatim) from right-wing populist vitriol at early times in American and European history, dealing in tropes well-worn by pre-WWII American Nazis, Joe McCarthy and fanatical anti-Catholic and anti-Masonic Protestant preachers of the 19th century. (via Inside the new hate - History - Salon.com)

John Stauffer on Civil Discourse

“I will recover and will return, and we will work together again, for Arizona and for all Americans,” Giffords wrote.

Jill Lepore on Civility in American History

Randall Kennedy on Civil Discourse

Thank you Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, keep getting better. 

These are public airwaves. The government is entitled to insist upon a certain modicum of decency. I am not sure it even has to relate to juveniles, to tell you the truth.

—Justice Antonin Scalia, debating decency and broadcast TV in the Supreme Court today