Last Night Sutherland hosted a blogger briefing discussing the topic of civility in politics and where we draw the line between being passionate and being civil. Dave Hansen and Rob Miller spoke – representing republicans and democrats in the discussion – and then they opened up for questions. It was a pretty good discussion in which they agreed on almost everything.
The main thing that I took away from the questions about how to foster civility in political discussion is that first and foremost we must each govern ourselves. Rob emphasized that multiple times – that it starts with an individual decision to keep our heads about us and be honest in our interactions whether we agree or disagree. Being honest requires that we not pretend to agree, that we not disagree in order to play devil’s advocate, and that we admit when we make mistakes or get some of our facts wrong. If we each keep our emotions in check we will be able to treat others in a dignified way, as all people deserve to be treated, and we can keep ourselves from escalating tensions when our feelings inevitably get bruised in the tussle between competing opinions.
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