Civility: Or in Search of a Lost Virtue

On Friday, January 18, a group of students from Covington Catholic High School attended a school trip to the March for Life in Washington, DC. In a scene that would subsequently go viral, one student in particular was confronted by a long-time native American activist playing a tribal song on a drum. The student did not know how to respond and had a now infamous smirk on his face. Differing interpretations of the situation quickly began to emerge, starting with left leaning sources and even traditional conservatives attacking the MAGA-hat-wearing teens.

Though it may be easy to make fun of and express anger at a privileged teen who is smiling at a clearly upset native American man, some of the internet mob went a bit too far with this one. Thousands of political analysts, both paid pundits and amateurs posting from their mother’s basement couch, took to the twitterverse to proclaim their outrage. Reza Aslan notably tweeted, with self-importance and all, “Have you ever seen a more punchable face than this kid’s?”

However, by far the most chilling statement to come out of the social media mob may have actually made a bigger comment on the nature of our politics today rather than the child in question. Filmmaker Michael Green tweeted in response to the event stating, “A face like that never changes. This image will define his life. No one need ever forgive him.”

But the slander and harassment didn’t stop with half of America calling this group a bunch of uppity racists online. Nick Sandman, the student pictured smiling in the iconic shot with Phillips, has reportedly received numerous death threats, loads of hate mail, and a world of harassment that has severely affected the quality of life of his entire family; all because he wore a hat and looked subjectively condescending. How can we possibly expect to live in a civil society if we threaten each other’s lives and families over disagreements about policy?

As time passed, it became all too clear that many people jumped on this story too fast. Though the current media system rewards producing content for clicks at breakneck speed, the media was irresponsible to run with this story, only to have their narrative countered when a two-hour clip of the entire event surfaced online. In this footage, it became clear that “Build the Wall” was never chanted at Phillips, a group of Black Israelites had been harassing the students yelling counter-homosexual slurs and racial epithets at them for an extended period of time, and Phillips approached the students with his drum. Sandman is seen at one point stopping another student who seemed as if he was going to physically confront Phillips. But none of this is really the point, is it? We as a country look to destroy lives as a part of the digital media mob, and it has torn at the social fabric of our nation.

It might be a bit shortsighted to blame this sudden lack of any civility and respect on technology. Mudslinging is in fact a political tactic as old as politics themselves. But something seems different about this age of personal warfare amongst political ideas. In the months following the death of George H. W. Bush, many have made the comment that he was one of the last great American statesmen. But as we mourn the loss of a particularly civil American, it feels as though it has become the least important part of our politics today.

Civility is a popular talking point currently, not only in the national news media but especially in the right-wing media. It’s incredibly easy for conservative minds to listen to talking heads drone on about how the left has always been uncivil dating back to the start of the millennium, and the same is true for blue haired Bernie supporters listening to their women and gender studies professors ragging on the orange man in the white house. And who can blame either side? It’s honestly pretty fair to say that we as a people deserve a far better representation.

As a hardline libertarian who just wants to be left alone, I am a third alternative in the binary world of American politics. I have few like-minded representatives in government as I feverishly watch the debt clock tick upwards to seemingly infinite levels. Having few options at the polls that you don’t find morally repugnant can be a lonely feeling, but these sorts of frustrations cannot affect how we treat each other as a people.

People are not rational actors, they are emotional, highly unpredictable beings which only sometimes act rationally. We are raised differently, we experience completely different lives, and as a result hold completely different values and beliefs about the world. These are often beliefs that are closely intertwined with who a person is, but fundamental disagreements about the world should not cause even the most basic of civil code break down in human interaction.

I recently attended an Intercollegiate Studies Institute conference featuring the different publications of the Collegiate Network which consisted of over 40 conservative student publications from across the nation. And though this conference featured a number of fascinating aspiring journalists, along with renowned modern conservatives such as Peter Theil, I found myself troubled by one constant theme.

Throughout the entire conference, speakers and students alike seemed to have one belief in common above all else: that the left is uncivil. It seemed to be the one big secret of the weekend that everyone was a little too overzealous to spill. And though tales of northerner Joe Biden telling the American people that Mitt Romney “is going to put y’all back in chains” are quite convincing, it felt as if the people in the room needed a look in the mirror. I’m not singling any person out, nor am I making a comment on the work of ISI or the CN (they are both wonderful organizations), but at a convention of some of the best young conservative journalists, it’s a bit unsettling to know that not one person even hinted at the need for civil behavior within the conservative movement.