Civility from the Top Down — A Message to President 44!

This campaign season we hear all about bridging divides, reaching across the aisle and breaking gridlock — it’s not about a Red America or a Blue America (and on and on and on). All the rhetoric sounds fine — but I’m not convinced.

Every lawmaker in Washington decries partisanship, and every newly elected leader pledges to “bridge partisan divides.” How many times have we heard that refrain? While our leaders may believe in civility in the abstract, they certainly don’t practice it. The past several years have witnessed a steady decline in the way that politicians treat each other. I can hardly pull together a tennis game with a Republican and a Democrat anymore. They bring up lurid details of each other’s pasts, smear one another with the worst possible labels, and question each other’s patriotism. Is it any wonder that our leaders can’t seem to get on with the business of governing?

Retiring Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) should give the newly elected leaders of 2009 a Civility 101 seminar, and advise our 44th president on Civility from the top down.

At the IFE/INFO Sen. Hagel public policy forum, George Vradenburg, one of Washington’s business and political insiders, asked Hagel what can be done to get past the gridlock that’s tearing apart our political system. The senator didn’t mince words: “The next president is not going to be able to govern without some bipartisan consensus that he must bring together. He’s going to have to do that right now. He’s going to have to do that before Jan. 20.” He went on to say that doing so will require “political courage” that’s “not in great abundance here.”

He argues that civility has to come from the top down — the president must set the example for getting business done in our nation’s capital. He must engage Congress. He must spend time with the legislators. He must work with them, face to face. The senator made it clear that this kind of outreach is a lot easier said than done. The next president will ruffle feathers and get into arguments with members of Congress, but in the end, people will respect him more for caring about what they think, engaging them, and respecting the democratic process.

Sen. Hagel spoke about the days of Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill. They routinely disagreed with each other during the day. Then they would have a scotch together, relax, and figure out how to move business forward. We need to get back to that kind of relationship.

We also need to judge people’s opinions on their merit. The senator said that we need to stop saying that someone’s not a “real” Republican or Democrat because he or she goes against the party on certain issues: “I take an oath of office to the Constitution, not to George Bush or the Republican Party.”

Indeed. We need leaders who are faithful to their country, not to their party. If we don’t start working together, we’re not just going to lose our country; we’re going to lose our leadership in the world.

Kathy Kemper is founder and CEO of the Institute for Education, a nonprofit foundation that recognizes and promotes leadership and civility locally, nationally and in the world community.