A little-used phrase has begun appearing in political headlines: civility.
The reason for this sudden explosion of interest in common sense courtesy? Incivility, specifically directed toward members of the Trump administration like Sarah Sanders, Stephen Miller, Kirstjen Nielsen, and Scott Pruitt among them.
You would think that the news media, the self-styled “guardians of democracy” who pride themselves on giving a voice to all — even those with whom they disagree — would militantly agitate against these outrageous examples of disrespect and aggression.
Of course, they did the exact opposite.
Rather than taking a principled stand and demanding that the Left treat the Right with civility and courtesy even in times of contentious political debate, many in the media have actually supported these tactics. Late night talk show host Stephen Colbert and filmmaker Michael Moore spoke of the need to “rise up” or “put their bodies on the line,” while Comedy Central’s Trevor Noah advocated for what is essentially the modern version of Hammurabi’s code or the Romans’ lex talionis: an eye for an eye.
If Trump administration officials are being paid to represent the president and execute his agenda, and if this agenda can be construed as “hateful” and “violent,” then it is not only permissible but necessary to treat these officials with hate and violence.
I heard these exact same apologies for incivility during my time as a College Republican at UC Berkeley in 2016 and 2017.
Most will recall the many conservative speaking events and rallies which were shut down by the violent actions of Antifa. However, what they will likely fail to recall is any discussion of the concept of civility in academic life. As a precondition for intellectual growth, civility too has its place at institutions of higher learning. Without it, the impartial truth could not be pursued, and to reduce all campus conflict down to constitutional and legal protections misses this important point.
Only a few days after violent protests shut down Milo Yiannopoulos’ speaking event in February 2017, I was tabling on campus for the Berkeley College Republicans — who hosted the event. To my relief, dozens of students came up to our table and expressed either outrage or disappointment at the actions of their peers and Antifa, who destroyed university property and impinged on my groups’ right to free speech. A few, of course, expressed disdain at our failed attempt to have a conservative speaker come to campus, and either told us as much or spat in our direction.
But what most left an indelible impression on me that day was my encounter with one student in particular. He coolly and calmly explained to me that if someone suspects a person of being a “Nazi,” he is fully within his rights and morally justified in punching that person in order to prevent that person’s “hateful” speech. Moreover, he said it with a smile as if it were a mundane and simple truth. I asked him if he would punch me to which he responded that he didn’t think I was a “Nazi.”
Regardless of his true intentions and my interpretation of the incident, it’s chilling that a peer of mine would so casually threaten violence to someone he disagreed with — or thought he did. Even more chilling, in not one of the many meetings I had with UC Berkeley’s chancellor, administrators, and professors did any individual raise the issue of “civility” and its place in the academy. The discussion was always about whether or not an instance of conservative speech could be defined as “hate speech” — a nonlegal and nebulous term — and whether or not certain actions on the parts of off-campus groups, students, or administrators constituted as violations of the First Amendment.
Liberals have forgotten the wisdom of one of their greatest icons, for the Indian nationalist Mahatma Gandhi is alleged to have said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” If my peers had remembered that wisdom, or had been made to remember it in the course of discussions about civility on college campuses, much of the violence could have been prevented.
