Chelsea Clinton on Civility

Chelsea has penned an eloquent op-ed on recent events. I'm with her!

Trump Has Helped Mainstream Hate, But This Election Is Our Chance To Push Back

Chelsea Clinton

November 2, 2018, 11:08 AM

 

 

 

 

Over the past two years, our country has been engaged in an ongoing conversation about “civility.” From the Women’s March to NFL players who kneel in protest of racial inequality and injustice, from people interrupting Trump administration officials out to dinner to protestors interrupting Supreme Court nomination hearings to register their dissent, various pundits and leaders across the political spectrum have expressed distaste for what they see as a rise in tactics that are uncivil, unproductive, and anti-democratic.

 

I’ve watched this debate unfold with frustration the entire time because it seems very clear to me that calling out bigotry and standing up for human rights — and confronting leaders who promote and exploit racism, xenophobia, transphobia, sexism, anti-Semitism either in their rhetoric or their policies or both — is the very definition of civil behavior. But in the past week the conversation reached an entirely new low.

 

People, largely Republican commentators equated confronting public servants in restaurants to bombs being sent to my parents’ home — as if explosive material and threats of violence are at all equivalent to demands for answers, accountability, and a recognition of shared humanity. These demands may be coming from righteously angry people, and they may make some uncomfortable, but in no way are these peaceful protests, even if yelled out, equivalent to actual threats and acts of violence.

 

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