Erosion of Civility Is Harming American Democracy

Amid Political Party Conflict, Individuals Agree

New Poll Finds Consensus Among Democrats and Republicans On the Consequences of Uncivil Politics.

Despite a daily barrage of partisan conflict, Americans from both political parties are generally united in the belief that uncivil behavior is rampant and having profound and negative effects on our democracy, according to a poll released today.

The 8th installment of Civility in America by Weber Shandwick and Powell Tate conducted with KRC Research found large majorities of the public agreeing that incivility is a major societal problem that is getting worse, promoting political gridlock, causing people to disengage from politics and leading to intolerance of free speech.

Ninety-three percent of the public agrees that the nation has a civility problem, acknowledging that it’s a “major” problem. Nearly three quarters of the public — and equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans — agree the problem has gotten worse in recent years. And members of each party are more likely to think civility will get worse than better in the years ahead, Democrats by 53 percent-22 percent and Republicans by 43 percent-28 percent.

The public is all but unanimous in citing the importance of civility to democracy, with 96 percent of Democrats and 95 percent of Republicans agreeing.

While the public does not single out politicians as the sole cause of incivility in society, 83 percent of Democrats and 76 percent of Republicans believe that uncivil politicians encourage incivility and members of both parties generally share the belief that incivility is having, or will have, negative consequences for our country.

When asked about the importance of civility in the White House, large majorities said it’s important for a president to act in a civil manner and also believe President Trump would be a more effective leader if he were more civil.

One area in which the poll found a vast disagreement between the two parties involved President Trump’s personal civility. Overall, 59 percent of the public found Mr. Trump uncivil, while 36 percent called him civil. Democrats and Independents found Mr. Trump uncivil by margins of 84 percent-14 percent and 57 percent-27 percent, respectively. Republicans, however, found the president civil by 64 percent-32 percent. There is a recent precedent for wildly divergent figures: In the 2014 Civility in America poll, Democrats declared President Obama civil by a margin of 81 percent-14 percent. Republicans said he was uncivil by a margin of 60 percent-36 percent. Go more in depth to these findings here.

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