Civil discourse endangered in U.S., noted Yale law professor insists

WACO—Democracy depends on something in short supply today in the United States—civil discourse involving people who disagree, author and legal expert Stephen Carter said.

Carter, professor at Yale Law School and author of The Culture of Disbelief, delivered the keynote address at the inauguration of Ken Starr as Baylor University’s 14th president, Sept. 17 in Waco.

“I worry deeply that we are losing the ability to debate” in meaningful ways, Carter said. Democracy demands that citizens “do the hard work of actually sitting, talking and working things out,” he insisted.

“The great symbol of the collapse of dialogue is the bumper sticker,” Carter said, bemoaning the tendency to “reduce complex ideas to slogans and applause lines.”

Americans should hold convictions deeply and vigorously defend their beliefs, but they should not dismiss people who have opposing views as bringing nothing valuable to the conversation.

“The more we express life that way, the less democratic we will be,” he said.

Too many activists of all political persuasions focus only on winning and getting their way, rather than engaging people with whom they disagree in a dialogue characterized by mutual respect, he insisted.

Carter pointed to the positive example of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, for whom he worked as a law clerk. In Marshall’s later years, Carter worked with him on an oral history project, recording Marshall’s recollections from his years as a civil rights attorney.

Carter noted Marshall’s tendency to speak even of the most ardent segregationists with some fondness, because he recognized their essential humanity. That perspective enabled him to negotiate groundbreaking advances in civil rights, because even his opponents knew he not see them as enemies, and they were able to find some common ground.

“We need to see people with whom we disagree as fully human and equally beloved by God,” Carter said.