"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of men and women."

Whatever his other virtues, Paine was not especially kind or charitable to his ideological enemies so it may seem strange to begin a talk about political civility with him, said Combs. But political rhetoric has always been harsh and appeals to emotions rather than logic.

For instance, the presidential campaign of 1800 was about as rough as any in our own time, like accusations of Thomas Jefferson being born an atheist, which he was not, and a revolutionary because he sympathized with the French Revolution. During the campaign of 1860, Abraham Lincoln's opponents often portrayed him as the "Illinois Orang-utan," and an uncultured, ignorant country bumpkin. Joseph McCarthy ruined scores of public servants and other prominent people, and even Harry Truman and General George Marshall were branded as traitors.

It seems that "brutish behavior" has always been a part of American politics. The basic assumption of government "of the people, by the people, for the people," is that we have the intelligence and critical acumen to govern ourselves based on reason and common sense. But what has been happening in American politics the past thirty years has made Coombs wonder if this is still valid. Thus, his theme tonight of the dramatic decline of Civil Discourse in the political arena, some of the causes, and what remedies if any are possible.

In years past, members of Congress when in session spent most of their time in Washington D.C. and at times, they and their spouses socialized at receptions and parties so that they became acquainted, even with those they debated against. These personal connections lent itself to more compromising and passing important legislation.

Today members of Congress are constantly running for re-election so that come Thursday afternoons, they're flying home making the workweek 2 ½ - 3 days long.

Extravagant courtesy on the floor also used to be the norm, noted Coombs, such as using terms like "the distinguished Senator from Utah" or "Will the gentleman yield?"

In fact, the Standing Rules of the Senate states that: "No Senator in debate shall, directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator." Moreover, it is prohibited for Senators in debate to "refer offensively to any State of the Union."

Digressing a bit, Coombs recounted an incident to illustrate how civility was not always thus. In 1856, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts delivered over two days a vicious speech attacking not only slavery but also two fellow Senators, one about his slobbering (suffered from a stroke) and his taking a mistress "the harlot, Slavery."

The next day, the stroke victim's cousin, also a Congressman walked onto the Senate floor to Sumner's desk and beat him bloody and senseless with a gutta percha cane. Though the cousin was not expulsed from the House, he later resigned. But in the meantime he was sent dozens of new gutta percha canes for beating other recalcitrant abolitionists.

Because political incivility has existed in American history and survived over 200 years, Coombs wondered if he had much more to say about civility. Before the Civil War, members of the House even carried loaded pistols to the floor. Recently Congressman Joe Wilson rescued him by his "You lie!" In addition to indignation afterwards, Wilson also received campaign money.

But Coombs questioned whether Congress at this point in time is the real problem, apart from the anger, especially among right-wing Republicans that has made moderate Republicans an endangered species. Distrust of Congress as an institution is manifest, painfully apparent this summer when members went home to town meetings and was confronted with rooms full of angry and distrustful people.

So why is the public mood so angry, vicious, and intolerant? Obviously some of it arises from the current economic hardships that many Americans are facing, said Coombs. Losing one's job or watching retirement savings shrink causes stress and unhappiness, exacerbated by Wall Street executives rewarding themselves with millions of federal dollars. Or Americans are angry about Afghanistan.

With such a deluge of anger and unhappiness comes an inability or unwillingness to process complicated explanations for our economic distress or global strategy so people turn to easier answers. And they abound.

There's talk radio programming, like Rush Limbaugh, now easily accessed via You Tube and Facebook. There's Fox News with Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity and, most recently, Glenn Beck. One result of these programs is that the line between reporting and editorializing has become badly blurred, encouraging distrust on every side.

To counter far-right programming, came MSNBC's Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow. Said Coombs, "My wife's sister-in-law loves them and watches them, should I say to a bunch of humanists, 'religiously?'" He admitting that he also watched though not as "religiously." Did this make even more difficult the process of rational exchange of ideas? And unfortunately, busy people succumb to easy bullet points.

Less obvious causes of the present discontent could be from the shrinking globe and growth of information, specifically information overload. Coombs wondered if the average American possesses the critical faculties of insisting on verification and real evidence to process the huge amount of information so readily available. If not, we are in real trouble, he said.

Much of the animosity, even hatred, is directed at the Obama administration and the President personally. A couple of months ago, Jimmy Carter said that he thought a major cause of that hatred was racial bias directed at the first African American President.

And somehow Obama's race and his name meant his election could not have been legitimate. Thus the "Birthers," who believe Obama was not eligible to be President because he had not been born in this country. Investigation revealed that he was born in Hawaii in 1961, but many "Birthers" may not know Hawaii is in the U.S.

President Carter said he was confident that Obama would be able to survive those attacks because of his "personal qualities," but Coombs finds it troubling that racist feelings still exist 55 years after Brown v. the Board of Education. In fact, Coombs believes that many people who harbor such feelings do not think of themselves as racist.

"It's just a built-in reaction to having someone who looks different as Chief Executive. And what's especially galling is, He's so good! So smart, so eloquent. To use an NBA analogy, if you're a Utah Jazz fan, you don't waste your time hating Nick Collison. You reserve your hatred for Kobe Bryant. (Okay, through his eight years in the White House, Democrats had a lot of unflattering things to say about George W. Bush and some historians I know spent time debating the question "Worst Ever?" But that merely serves as another example of the decline of civility.)"

Coombs argued that hatred of any kind and personalizing issues is destructive of the rational discourse necessary for our system to function properly. Turning the clock back more than fifty years, when he was a debater in high school, they were taught that there are at least two sides to every issue--or it wouldn't be an issue.

Lending rationality, intelligence, acceptance, and civility--and hope--are some of Coomb's heroes: Jim Lehrer, Gwen Ifill and others who still try to do it the right way. Bill Moyers though coming at current issues from his own perspective still keeps it civil. And, for the most part, Brian Williams and Katie Couric try to remain bipartisan in delivering the news.

Coombs admires Kathleen Parker, syndicated columnist for the Washington Post and gives high marks to David Brooks, New York Times columnist who regularly appears with Mark Shields on Jim Lehrer's "News Hour."

Also cause for optimism and hope is Laura Bush who in a CNN interview said President Obama was doing a good job amidst very difficult problems. And American school children should hear encouragement from their president.

Amen.

--Sarah Smith