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We Must Not Be Enemies We Must Not Be Enemies Restoring America’s Civic Tradition Michael Austin ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD Lanham • Boulder • New York • London Published by Rowman & Littlefield An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com 6 Tinworth Street, London SE11 5AL, United Kingdom Copyright © 2019 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Austin, Michael, 1966– author. Title: We must not be enemies : restoring America’s civic tradition / Michael Austin. Description: Lanham, Maryland : Rowman & Littlefield, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018050571 (print) | LCCN 2019000297 (ebook) | ISBN 9781538121269 (electronic) | ISBN 9781538121252 (cloth : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Political culture—United States. | Democracy—United States. | Civics. | Polarization (Social sciences)—Political aspects—United States. Classification: LCC JK1726 (ebook) | LCC JK1726 .A87 2019 (print) | DDC 323.6/50973—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018050571 ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America For Russel Arben Fox, one of the best arguers I know. And also the best friend. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interest alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned, but has never quite forgotten—that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side- by-side with the greatest. —Learned Hand, “The Spirit of Liberty” We must love one another or die. —W. H. Auden, “September 1, 1939” Contents Preface xi Chapter 1: “The Height to Be Superb Humanity” 1 Chapter 2: “The Apprenticeship of Liberty” 13 Chapter 3: “We Are Not Enemies, but Friends” 29 Chapter 4: Parties and Political Tribes 45 Chapter 5: The Great American Outrage Machine 61 Chapter 6: The Other Opposite of Friendship 75 Chapter 7: The Majesty of Persuasion 89 Chapter 8: Agreeing to Disagree 107 Chapter 9: “Think It Possible You May Be Mistaken” 125 Chapter 10: The Vision and the Dream 143 Appendix A: James Madison, Federalist #10 157 Appendix B: John Quincy Adams, Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory 165 Appendix C: Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America 169 ix