As 2022 election nears, majority of South Dakota voters see civility declining in America

Editor’s note: This is the fourth and final article based on a recent statewide poll conducted by South Dakota News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota, and is the latest segment in the ongoing “South Dakota Matters” series of polls and panel discussions hosted by News Watch.

With the 2022 midterm elections approaching soon, a vast majority of South Dakotans feel that our nation has become less civil — and they place the responsibility for improving civility on a variety of institutions and individuals, including themselves, according to a new statewide poll.

Nearly eight in 10 registered voters (79.0%) who responded to the poll said that civility in America has gotten worse over the past five years, while only 2.6% said civility has improved during that time. In addition, 16.4% said civility has remained the same, while 2.0% were unsure, according to the poll.

Civility, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is defined as “courtesy and politeness” or “a polite act or expression,” though definitions of civility may vary widely among individuals.

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Meanwhile, registered voters who responded to the poll said they believed that political leaders have the most responsibility for improving civility in America. However, respondents also placed a significant responsibility on themselves for making the country more civil.

The cell phone and landline poll of 500 registered voters was conducted in late July by the Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy firm and was commissioned by South Dakota News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota. The 500 registered voters surveyed closely match the breakdown of the statewide electorate in terms of political affiliation, gender, age and geography. The margin of error was plus or minus 4.5%.

To further examine and understand the poll results, News Watch interviewed three experts on civility in South Dakota to get their views and insights on civility in America. Here are their responses.

Larry Pressler, 80, a native of Humboldt, S.D., is a Rhodes Scholar and Harvard Law graduate who served two tours of combat duty in the Vietnam War before launching a political career that included two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (1975 to 1979) and three terms as a U.S. senator (1979 to 1997). Pressler served in Congress as a Republican, but ran as an Independent in an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 2014.

Pressler said the News Watch poll results provide more evidence of what he says has been a troubling shift toward negativity and division in American politics and government.

As civility has declined, Pressler said, it has become more difficult for groups and individuals to make progress on critical issues.

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“The lack of civility is very unproductive and it makes life miserable,” Pressler said. “Some people seem to like all this conflict, but I don’t; I like a conflict-free environment.”

Pressler describes himself politically as a “moderate” and a “centrist,” and he is dismayed by a worsening lack of civility in America.

“Sometimes conflict is necessary, and when you don’t approve of what they’re doing or saying, then you have to speak up,” he said. “But I’m a great centrist; I’m a passionate, extreme centrist. I believe in the middle of the road in politics and in life, and I believe in compromise as a way forward.”

The increasing divisiveness, he said, has resulted in a growing unwillingness of lawmakers to work on real problems in a bipartisan fashion.

“When I first started out in politics, in 1978 … I didn’t engage in a lot of flashy language and harsh criticisms. I stuck to the issues, but I’m not sure you could even do that now and win.”

Pressler said many political leaders have gone negative in campaigns because they have seen that the American public tunes into, remembers and reacts to messages of conflict and negativity.

“What I found is that people love to listen to negative ads, that they respond to those, and that’s too bad because as a result, a lot of good people have gotten out of politics.”

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Pressler said working with members of an opposing political party is now seen as weakness or a lack of conviction, whereas in the past the ability to work in a bipartisan fashion was celebrated, Pressler said.

Pressler said the path to greater civility may require a return to some of the long-held tenets of American life.

“For starters, we can go to church more, and we can have discussions about morals and ethics in our schools. In our homes, we can teach our children and grandchildren to do something nice for somebody else today," he said. “I think we’ll be all right, but we have to be careful because we’re becoming a very coarse nation."

Matthew Moen is a former dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of South Dakota who has spent years studying civility in government and politics while also trying to improve civility in South Dakota and the country as a whole.

Moen, 64, said he is not surprised that South Dakotans who responded to the News Watch poll were well aware of the decline in civility.

“We’re witnessing it firsthand, we feel it in our hearts, and I think we have a growing unease that this is becoming more of a permanent fixture in our politics,” he said.

Moen noted that civility in politics tends to falter when party control of Congress is unsettled or in question, as it is heading into the 2022 midterm elections and in recent congressional elections.

“Compromise is really the lifeblood of how the American system is structured, and compromise and conciliation are now seen as vices and not virtues by many partisans on both sides,” he said.

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Jason Herrboldt, 43, is the chief banking officer at First Bank & Trust in Sioux Falls who just completed a one-year term as the president of the Sioux Falls Downtown Rotary, where he led efforts to expand civic engagement and civility in eastern South Dakota.

Herrboldt said he does not typically experience incivility during his regular personal and professional interactions with people in Sioux Falls and across South Dakota.

Herrboldt said civil behavior requires an investment of an individual’s time and energy into listening to others, learning facts and gaining context, and then approaching discussions of problems with trust and openness.

“If you start with good intentions, which isn’t always easy, but if you believe someone on the other side of a discussion comes with good intentions, that’s a wonderful place to start,” Herrboldt said.

— This article was produced by South Dakota News Watch, a non-profit journalism organization located online at SDNewsWatch.org.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Majority of South Dakota voters see civility declining in America