In his opening meeting this past week as Chair of the National Governors Association, Republican Governor Spencer Cox of Utah called on the nation's governors to join his initiative Disagreeing Better: Healthy Conflict for Better Policy. The initiative, designed to improve the quality of public debate, urges governors to be leaders in elevating the substance and reducing the toxic style of current political discourse.
Read More“Graduates, I don’t come here to ask you to have faith in human dignity. I don't come here because I have some deep belief in it. I don't come here because I have a theory about it. I come here because I've seen it. I know it exists,” Shriver said. “I’m here to ask you — to beg you — as you go forward from here, don't listen to the voices that are telling you to blame and shame and treat others with contempt. Turn them off, tune them out, shut them down.”
Read MoreHow are you going to change the discourse with your organization UNITE?
We’re just trying to reveal to people the ways in which contempt has infiltrated their lives. Most people are not aware of it. We don’t have to tell them what to do, just have a discussion. Challenge yourself. Invite yourself. Who’s your best self? That’s the question. Create a conversation so that people can dialogue about how to change it, and then ultimately create tools for people that want to change so that they can do so. It’s pretty easy. Treat your fellow Americans with dignity. Full stop. That’s the invitation.
Read MoreThe “perfect storm” of forces has contributed to the nation’s “cycle of addiction to contempt,” he said.
Restoring dignity to public discourse and to basic human interactions requires self-reflection and committing to personal change regarding our perceptions of those we consider “other,” he said.
Read MoreBut one thing I know for sure: giving up isn’t American. And one more thing I know for sure: giving up isn’t the best option. We can treat each other with dignity and begin the process of easing divisions. We can be curious about the opinions of others and look for creative solutions to our problems. We can break our addiction to hatred and contempt, and prevent further despair, loneliness, and violence. And we can do all this starting right now.
Read More…the antidote to rural rage and resentment can’t come from outside our communities—it lies within. To get respect, we must give respect (in the same way, rage begets more rage).
Read MoreThe lesson of the scapegoat urges us to choose a different course. The goat led into the wilderness carries away our sins if—and only if—we simultaneously offer ourselves up on the altar of collaboration, mutual respect, and inspired vision. Passion can be a powerful force for positive change, and we have a duty to call out misinformation and faulty reasoning wherever it appears. But we can do so with both professionalism and mature articulation. When we do, especially when those who oppose us discard good manners for bluster, we gain the upper hand simply by maintaining our personal dignity.
Read MoreA couple of special needs advocates have created a tool that may help boost American civility. It couldn’t come at a better time.
Tim Shriver, chair of the Special Olympics, and Tami Pyfer, a former special education teacher, are promoting something they call the “Dignity Index,” which scores political speech for civility and divisiveness. The index classifies political speech into eight levels. Level eight, the most civil, is speech that offers dignity and hope. Level 1, the least civil, dehumanizes and advocates violence.
Read MoreCould a new social scientific tool help us to publicly shame acts of incivility—and publicly praise acts of civility—in a way that ultimately improves American political and civic life? Tami Pyfer, a former local official in Utah, thinks so. The Dignity Index was developed with a national nonprofit, and Pyfer and a bipartisan team deployed it in Utah during the midterm elections. Amanda Ripley recently discussed the project in a fascinating essay in Politico, and while the reception by the public thus far leaves a lot to be desired, the concept is worthy of deeper consideration.
Read MoreIn early October, Tami Pyfer, a former Special Ed teacher, high-level Republican appointee and member of the Tabernacle Choir, logged onto Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and posted a carefully crafted announcement.
“Are you frustrated by the hate and negativity in our country’s political and public discourse?” the post asked. “You’re not alone.” A new tool called the Dignity Index was now on the case. It was designed to score politicians’ rhetoric on an eight-point scale based on how dignified or contemptuous it was. Voters would find the scores on the Dignity Index’s website, or, more likely, through media coverage, much like they might come across candidates’ NRA or Planned Parenthood scorecards. And it was already being deployed that very week in Utah, just in time for the midterms.
Read MoreWhen Republican Sen. Mike Lee and his U.S. Senate opponent Evan McMullin met for a debate in October, they may not have been aware a group of University of Utah students was listening intently, waiting to see whether each candidate treated his opponent with dignity or contempt. As it turned out, both Lee and McMullin came out with a few gold stars and a few red flags, according to the scores assigned them by the students, who were part of a pilot project in Utah sponsored by the Dignity Index, an organization founded by Tim Shriver.
Read MoreOn election night, after the votes are tallied and the decisions are announced, candidate speeches are important. Campaigns are divisive; political attacks hurt people, and the words candidates choose offer a chance to heal. That’s why a good election night speech is a humble one, and it probably isn’t humble enough unless it was hard for the candidate to say. This past Tuesday night, after Congressman Tim Ryan from Ohio lost his Senate race to J.D. Vance, Ryan said to his disappointed supporters, “I had the privilege to concede this race to J.D. Vance. “The fact that this line made national news is a sign that -- at this time in American political life – we’re amazed by grace. We hope this won’t always be the case.
Read MoreThe FBI issued a memo last week warning of a rising likelihood of political violence. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released today says that nearly nine in ten Americans are worried about it. What can we do? If someone tells us the cause of violence is economic issues, or the decline of institutions, or the loss of public trust, there’s just not much we can do. But Amanda Ripley, author of the recent book High Conflict, says, “Political speech, we know from the research, can incite violence, and it can also reduce the likelihood of violence. ”What’s the difference between speech that increases or reduces the chance of violence? Dignity and contempt.
Read MoreWhen we were in the early stages of testing of the Dignity Index, a Republican woman from rural Utah said, “We want to be able to stand up for what we believe in – without getting attacked and without attacking.” Sometimes people tell us that they have to speak with contempt when people do things they believe are wrong. That if they speak with contempt, they can keep people in line, and if they don’t speak with contempt, they’re just letting people get away with things. We disagree. We believe that challenging people without contempt works better – because we avoid language that makes everyone angry, and we focus attention on the issue, not the individual.
Read MoreIt’s important to be clear about what the Dignity Index can measure, and what it can’t measure. The Index can measure contempt or dignity in a passage from a speech or a debate. It can’t measure contempt or dignity in a full debate or in a campaign. And so it can’t work as a tool for comparing two candidates on the dignity scale. That would not be fair. That’s because a valid dignity score for a debate would have to identify and score every single instance of dignity or contempt in the debate. But we are scoring language manually, which means we can, at most, score an equal number of passages from each candidate in a debate.
Read MoreApplying the principles of the Dignity Index, coders selected the high- and low-dignity segments to represent the widest range of dignity during the debate. This selection provides insight into the range of language often expressed in political dialogue. As a result, the scores of these passages may not conform to an individual’s perception of the entire debate. As with the other debates, examples of both contempt and dignity for both candidates were evident, showing individuals are capable of both. However, in this debate there were more examples of contempt, and fewer examples of dignity.
Read MoreIn a country as polarized as ours is now, it’s natural for people to be suspicious that The Dignity Index is a secret scheme to gain partisan advantage. It’s not. The Index is not on the side of any debater; it’s on the side of the debate – and on the side of democracy. As we set out to design a dignity scale, we did not anticipate what happened. We found that the dignity scale measures not only how we treat each other when we disagree; it also measures how well we ease divisions and solve problems.
Read MoreThe Dignity Index released ratings from the Fourth Congressional District debate, Congressman Owens’ comments related to the debate, and ratings of third-party messages - those not paid for or issued directly from candidates and their campaigns.
The CD4 debate scores are found in a separate post. Burgess Owens declined to participate in the debate, and therefore these scores come from his videotaped statement regarding nonparticipation in the debate.
Read MoreOne of the most frequently asked questions about the Dignity Index is, “How can you hold people politically accountable without contempt?” It’s a good question. People tend to believe that challenging politicians or public figures requires contempt. But treating people with contempt usually backfires. It inflames them, makes them defiant, and can turn them into an enemy. And when you speak of someone with contempt, you’re encouraging all your sympathetic listeners to have contempt for that person too, and encouraging all your non-sympathetic listeners to have contempt for you.
Read MoreThe Dignity Index released scores for select passages from the October 10th First Congressional District debate between Rep. Blake Moore and challenger Rick Jones. Both of the Congressional debates so far have been largely free of contempt, although the selected passages showed lower scores in general than last week’s Third Congressional District debate between Rep. John Curtis and challenger Glenn Wright, with the most notable difference between the two debates being the level of engagement between the candidates.
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