October 29, 2012
The End of Civilty?

politicalprof:

So recently I was asked to do a talk for a church group on the question of the rise of incivility in American politics. Are we, they wanted to know, entering a particularly intransigent and vitriolic period of politics? Are things worse than they used to be?

Regular readers of my posts will not be surprised by my answer:

  • In America, we have had one rival member of Congress nearly beat  another to death on the floor of the Senate;
  • we have lynched people for trying to register to vote. we have burned down their homes and wiped out their finances for the same “crime.”
  • we have unleashed the police and National Guard to use military violence crush  strikes;
  • we have engaged in nearly genocidal violence to claim dominion over the “United States”;
  • we have blacklisted workers for their party or union memberships;
  • we have allowed the systematic abuse of women with crimes like domestic violence on the grounds that inside the home, whatever the man did was fine;
  • we have lived Jim Crow and dogs attacking civil rights marchers and water cannons and bombs and terror to enforce racial segregation;

and much, much more.

So while I am not naive about the current state of American politics—we have to do much better—we also shouldn’t kid ourselves about our past: American politics has always been brutal and nasty.

We just used to hide it better.

11:50am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZmCeYyWCTh6d
(Notes: 91)
  
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    A great, brief reminder.
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