The Key To Successful Government. Michael Austin, one of Democratic Perspective’s favorite guests, returns to the show to discuss his new book We Must Not Be Enemies – Restoring America’s Civic Tradition. He begins by referring to Aristotle’s concept of civic friendship, the feeling you have for people you share a country with. You wish them well rather than wish them ill.
Austin explains, “As Aristotle frames it, for a democracy to
work, people have to be willing to enact policies and laws that don’t simply
grab every bit of power that’s available for their side. You have to realize
that other people have different perspectives than you do. And you have to
structure the country in a way that their happiness matters, too. Otherwise,
you end up in a civil war.” He continues by pointing out that 2016 was the
first election on record where most people said they were voting against the
other candidate than for their candidate. “That’s actually a pretty big tipping
point,” says Austin.
He says, “The core idea of civic friendship is that we govern
in a way that has room for people who don’t agree with us. The main idea of the
book is that we have to argue with each other more. And we have to do it in
certain ways that are more arguments than shouting matches.” Austin notes that
politeness is a good thing. But the key to politeness is that we don’t discuss
certain things. “It’s much easier to be polite when you’re not discussing the
things that matter most. I don’t think that we should encourage the kind of
civility that says let’s just not talk about these things. Because we have to
talk about these things.”
“Whatever we think of the other side, it’s not going
anywhere. We’ve got to figure out how to govern a country that is made up of
people who disagree with each other. And, if we can’t do that, either we’re
going not to be able to govern. Or we’re not going to be able to have a
democracy.”
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