The constant, polarising grind from the ‘collapse of American civility’ has polluted public discourse

American politics has infected public discourse to the extent that normal human interactions are under threat writes David Penberthy.

Imagine living in the United States. Imagine living in a society so polarised that you can’t talk to your mates or family about politics without fear of destroying relationships.

I know a lot of Americans. I’ve been lucky to visit the US about seven times. I’ve never met anyone who was wearing a buffalo-horned hat and a bearskin rug over their bare chest and was about to storm the Capitol.

Americans are great people. Like us, they’re generally laidback, easygoing folks who would rather talk about sport or have a beer and a barbecue than crap on about politics. But when you look at the US from afar, it feels like the dominant voices in the public conversation are now the crazy and hateful ones.

American politics has infected public discourse. Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP

What has happened in America, for all sorts of reasons, is that politics has now infected public discourse to the extent that normal human interactions are under threat. People talk about the risk of the US descending into civil war. You could argue that it already is in a conversational sense. It’s not an actual physical conflict but an intellectual one, where people genuinely hate each other on the basis of their views.

It doesn’t matter if those views are muted, either. You don’t even have to pick a proper fight. Simply saying that you are a Democrat, or saying that you voted for Trump and would do so again, is enough to prompt the conclusion from the person you’re talking to that you are morally bankrupt. And speaking of civil war, God knows what would have happened if that deranged gunman had actually killed Trump two weeks ago.

The collapse of American civility was underscored in that dismal debate last month. Rather than a contest of ideas it was a 90-minute orgy of abuse, best evidenced by Joe Biden’s casual description of Trump as having “the morals of an alley cat” over sleeping with porn stars while his wife was pregnant. Trump, meanwhile, spends much of his time dreaming up juvenile nicknames for his opponents. Sleepy Joe. Cackling Kamala. Crazy Nancy. Even his fellow Republicans aren’t safe. Just ask Lyin’ Ted Cruz.

The contest of ideas? It is officially dead. The ability to agree to disagree with opponents, also gone. All this in a country where less than 15 years ago we saw dignified and warm scenes featuring the defeated George W Bush and wife Laura giving Michelle and Barack Obama a personal guided tour of the White House as the new President and First Lady got ready to move in.

Imagine living in a society so polarised that you can’t talk to your mates or family about politics without fear of destroying relationships writes David Penberthy. Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP.

Imagine that happening next January. There’s about as much chance of Benjamin Netanyahu wandering into a Palestinian kebab shop and getting a warm welcome upon asking for a felafel roll.

The US presidential elections in November will be less about the power of politics than the behaviour-altering power of human exhaustion. If I lived in the US, as a voter I would have counted myself until this Monday as a “double hater”, to use the American term for those voters who could think of nothing worse than being forced to choose again between Trump and Biden, between a dangerous demagogue who incited a riot where people were actually killed, versus a doddery old bugger who didn’t know what day of the week it was, and who as a result had taken his eye off key policy issues, none greater than the mismanagement of the US border. As an outsider, you have to wonder what the normal people of America did to be confronted with such a dreadful Hobson’s choice.

This is why the undecided vote will be so fascinating to watch. And if Harris does win, and the early polls suggest she might (or even will), it will say little or arguably even nothing about her policy positions. It will show that Americans are just sick of all the bluster and bullshit. That rather than wanting to make America great again, they want to make America quieter again.

We need to watch out for these loud types in Australia, too. The last thing we want as a country is to become the same viciously demarcated political cage fight where none of us can agree to disagree. Maybe also we could ensure that just occasionally we talk about something other than climate change, the merits of nuclear power, trans politics, Voices to Parliament, or any other sure-fire barney-starters that set everyone’s teeth on edge. The unyielding consumption of political news and its endless prosecution has turned the US into an unliveable basket case.

And just as a calming explanatory note to the Trump-lovers who (habitually) will jump in the comments section and (mis)read this article as purely an attack on their beloved Donald. It’s not. It’s an attack on the whole sad s--t show America has become. I don’t pin all of that on Trump. For what it’s worth, I’d argue Trump to a significant degree is the inevitable, putrid product of left-wing censoriousness and progressive elitism, an elitism personified by his first presidential rival Hillary Clinton, who appeared to be running mainly because it was her turn, and who inflamed and expanded the Trump base by branding them all “deplorables”. That, too, was an example of how badly things had drifted from the Bush-Obama bromance back in January 2009, where you don’t just abuse your opponent, but anyone who’s apparently dumb and despicable enough to vote for them.

God bless America, God help America, and in this coming contest, now that Joe has toddled off for a well-deserved and extended lie-down, may the best woman win.