Once upon a time, there was something called comity in our politics. Senators disagreed ferociously, representatives sparred with passion and witnesses were grilled with intensity.
But even when tempers flared, there was an understanding that the process was bigger than the personalities. That sense of respect — sometimes grudging, sometimes theatrical — was the lubricant of self-government. Today, it feels like that lubricant has run dry.
The latest display came in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week. FBI Director Kash Patel was called to testify. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) pressed him on his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Instead of answering, Patel erupted. He called Schiff a “liar,” a “fraud,” “a disgrace” and “a political buffoon at best.” He dismissed the proceeding itself as a “kangaroo court.” His tirade drowned out Schiff’s microphone and reduced the hearing to a shouting match, punctuated only by Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) banging his gavel in futility.
One might be tempted to dismiss this as a one-off — a Trump loyalist indulging in invective against one of Trump’s favorite targets. But Patel’s outburst is not isolated. It is the culmination of years of declining standards in public discourse. Insults have replaced arguments, contempt has replaced disagreement and self-righteous performances have replaced the duty to engage with respect.
What happened to courtesy? What happened to restraint? Where is the recognition that even adversaries hold office by the consent of millions of fellow citizens? Schiff did not deserve Patel’s name-calling. But in truth, no one deserves it — not Republicans grilled by Democrats, not Democrats questioned by Republicans. Hearings are supposed to be fact-finding exercises, not cable news brawls staged for viral clips.
This is not a partisan problem. The tone of our politics has deteriorated across the spectrum. Democrats who once prided themselves on “when they go low, we go high” now revel in Twitter dunks and late-night ridicule. Republicans, emboldened by Trump’s norm-shattering style, delight in cruelty as proof of authenticity. Everyone is misbehaving, and the result is a culture that rewards the sharpest insult, not the strongest idea.
We have seen it in House hearings where lawmakers scream over witnesses, more eager to produce a meme than to extract an answer. We have seen it in presidential debates that devolve into playground brawls. We have seen it in social media campaigns where glee over an opponent’s misfortune takes the place of sober policy discussion. And now we see it in Senate hearings, once a bastion of deliberation.
This is more than embarrassing. It is dangerous. When public servants model disrespect, they license it in the broader culture. If leaders treat each other as enemies rather than opponents, why should ordinary citizens behave differently? Already we see it: Political violence is on the rise, threats against public officials have multiplied and trust in institutions has cratered.
Kindness does not mean weakness. Respect does not mean surrender. Civility does not require abandoning conviction. It requires remembering that democracy depends on recognizing legitimacy — the idea that even those we oppose have the right to be heard without being demeaned.
The collapse of civility is not inevitable. But unless we demand better — louder than the screamers, steadier than the bomb throwers — we will get the politics we tolerate. And if we tolerate contempt, contempt is all we will have left.
Not sure I would have used the example above but You’re right about the disintegration of civility in politics. I would have used the “you’re Adolph Hitler, a Fascist and a destroyer of democracy” and yet you’re absolutely right about the downward slide of our politics into the cesspool of life. Hate breeds more hate and there’s enough of it already.