Politicians accuse one another of lying through their teeth. Media pundits bash opponents with name-calling. Activists paint signs with slogans they see on television or hear on the radio with little creativity, said political science professor Cornell Clayton.

“Where’s the imagination?” asked Clayton, the guest speaker at last night’s Common Reading event in the CUE. The title of the lecture was “Being Wrong about Democracy: Political Incivility in a Polarized Society.”

Clayton, director of WSU’s Thomas S. Foley Institute, is frequently invited to speak on the topic of incivility in American politics.

American political debates are riddled with crass and unimaginative personal insults, nothing which compares to the clever retorts of 19^th century British politicians Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone, Clayton said.

“Many of us have nostalgia for gentler, more civil politics in America,” Clayton said.

He explained that incivility increases when politics matter most – during periods of political polarization, economic transformation, rising inequality, mass immigration, and demographic change.

To illustrate, he pointed to past incidences of incivility in American politics.

He said while many believe George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison represent the most upstanding of America’s leaders, the era of the founding fathers is “the most bitter and the most dirty” in all of American history.

“Is today worse than those other periods?” he said. “I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

Clayton said the relationship between incivility and democracy is more complicated than people assume.

“There is a good deal, a lot of incivility, a lot of anger in our politics today,” he said. “The real question is…whether it poses a threat to our politics.”

Clayton showed a chart that quantified relative political conservatism among American politicians.

“Democrats and Republicans are further apart today than they have ever been in history,” he said. “There is a growing gap between how Democrats and Republicans respond to questions.”

Another chart illustrated growing polarization in Americans’ responses to “value questions.” Clayton said value questions pertain to issues like gay marriage and whether the United States should go to war.

“Americans in general are not nearly as polarized as our elected officials are,” he said. “Most Americans fall somewhere in the middle – not in the extremes.”

Clayton explained that the differences between Democrats and Republicans are more rigidly defined than ever before.

“We have divided ourselves into two teams – two consistent, coherent teams,” he said. “If you are a Republican, you are almost inevitably conservative, and, if you are a Democrat, you are almost inevitably liberal.”

He said this has revealed a “tribal attitude” among politically-minded Americans.

“The general public has sorted itself ideologically,” he said. “We’ve sorted ourselves properly into the parties, if you want to think about it in those terms.”

Clayton said incivility is a symptom, not a cause, of political polarization in democratic societies.

Karen Weathermon, co-chair of the Common Reading Program, said she hopes Clayton’s lecture influences students to take up new areas of academic interest.

“You have the foundation of a general education to see the world through different lenses,” Weathermon said.

Freshman Bianca Dukesherer found the shift in the American political landscape most interesting.

“There’s a larger gap in what we think today,” Dukesherer said. “It’s definitely changed over time.”

Clayton concluded that cooperation between political parties is essential to the democratic process.

“Democracy is a commitment to a process – not an outcome,” Clayton said. “How we decide is more important than what we decide.”