Yesterday, a group of more than 130 former legislators, both Republicans and Democrats, released a letter urging for civility and encouraging candidates, once elected, to focus on cooperation to face our country's greatest challenges. The letter said:
None of us shrank from partisan debates while in Congress or from the partisan contests getting there. During our time in Congress, partisans on the other side may have been our opponents on some bills and our adversaries on some issues. They were not, however, the enemy.
Indeed, when did the other side of the aisle go from "honorable adversary" to the enemy? I've spoken to many of these political leaders over the years. They all tell me that heavy partisanship is not new, but an overt hostility toward the other side is clearly increasing and is a disturbing trend. Senators of different parties rarely have meals or drinks together anymore, which used to be common. Especially over the past few decades, the chance for Senators of different parties to get to know each other personally, or even their colleagues' families, has steadily dwindled. They now normally eat their lunches with their caucus or donors.
The letter goes on:
Congress appears gripped by zero-sum game partisanship. The goal often seems to be more to devastate the other side (the enemy, no longer the honorable adversary) than to find common ground to solve problems, much less to have a spirited but civil debate about how to do so.
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