How do we return civility to our political discourse?

There is a fundamental and basic part of political discourse that has been blocked by purposeful impediment that is causing an incivility in our political discourse. In order to return this factor back into our discourse we must remove the blockage.

First, what is the “fundamental and basic element”?

The fundamental element is truth, or if you will, honesty. Our political system has replaced truth and honesty with convenient justifications and lies. We have allowed our systems to produce a mirage. When it is more convenient to avoid the truth than admit the existence of the same truth, we create a marginally honest representation of it to preserve our ideology or position. Other times we hide it or lie.

The blockage?

There are several sources I could point to that are acting as blockage to the truth. Some of them would cast me in a light of conspiratorial and others would be narrow-minded and would lend fodder to the obstruction. The truth is we have lost our way as individuals and thus a people. We have allowed the process of democratic representation in a Republic to be manipulated and resurfaced for the purpose political expedience and gain. We have abandoned the very idea of individualism that we declared to be inalienable.
In the process we have made a sport out of our Liberty. We have ceded the direction of the conversation to but a few, and in the process we have become players. There was a day that we acted as free thinkers. Today, we are expected to be Ideologues.

We have gotten to a point that we cannot even sit in a room with one another and have a discussion without attacking each other.

How do we remove the blockage?

We as individuals must begin to unite, knowing that there are those that do not want us united. I say to them be damned. Let us come together as individuals and leaders to begin dialogue on those things we can agree upon. Let us retrain ourselves on what it means to have political discourse that is meaningful and honest. Let us as leaders come together and lead by example so that we may, replace disparagement with dialogue, attacks with civility, ignorance with learning, partisanship with honesty, and fabrication with truth.

It is our turn now to lead. I am asking you to join me in an idea that has no determinable conclusion. What it does offer is an opportunity to reset our course. This idea begins to rebuild so that we may once again learn how to disagree with those of different persuasion without tearing them down.

Our nation was built upon the idea of the individual. So let us respect the same and regain some political civility and composure to continue this grand experiment we call The United States of America. Let us do so by finding our foe and reestablishing common ground on which we can agree, so that we can build a foundation upon which we can disagree with civility.

~ Eric D. Miller – 2013