By Michael Schaffer, senior editor at POLITICO.
These are boom times for civility in Washington.
Not in our politics, interpersonal relationships or social media interactions, mind you: In survey after survey, Americans bemoan the nasty, polarized, ad hominem tone of the country’s life.
But for people in the business of teaching, studying and promoting dialogue and understanding, things are going gangbusters. As the nation’s political culture has coarsened over the past couple decades, there’s been a flowering of think tanks, nonprofits and public campaigns aimed at calming the waters, with deep-pocketed donors and philanthropic foundations kicking in millions for the effort.
The latest recruit to Big Civility is outgoing Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan, who is leaving the Post this summer to launch the Center on Public Civility at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. The new institute, which will be housed at the Reagan Foundation’s offices across Lafayette Square from the White House, is being created thanks in part to a substantial gift from Ryan’s soon-to-be-former boss, Jeff Bezos.
When we spoke last week, Ryan, also the founding chief executive of POLITICO, cited a familiar litany of woes: Politicians hurling invective instead of negotiating. Campus activists trying to cancel folks over political differences. Social media trolls menacing newsmakers, reporters and private citizens. “I think it is a growing concern,” he said. “It’s something that spans party lines. It’s not about politics, or partisanship anyway. And it’s not just politics — we see it in social media and academia. It’s a problem, and one that only seems to be getting worse.”
That’s not for lack of trying.
A very partial catalog of newish organizations focused on fixing our toxic national discourse would include the Constructive Dialogue Institute (founded 2017), the Better Arguments Project (2018) and the Civility Leadership Institute (2019). There are brand-new civility research centers on campuses ranging from South Carolina’s tiny Allen University (2020) to California’s vast U.C. San Diego (2021). The list goes on.
In Congress, there’s a Civility Caucus. On calendars, there’s a National Civility Month (it’s August). There are civility campaigns convening hometown worthies in places like Duluth, Minn and Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and a National Institute for Civil Discourse loaded with political VIPs in Washington, including two former presidents who served as founding chairs. Bezos’ gift isn’t even the first check he’s written to the cause: In 2021, the Amazon founder endowed the $100 million Bezos Courage and Civility Award.