John Avlon Quotes

The level of discourse in this country is falling to a depth that cannot be sustained.

Even if America is unlikely to descend into another civil war, our present trajectory carries huge risks. Millennials may take charge of the country without much memory of a functional Congress, tolerant public discourse, or social circles that transcend our atomized subcultures. Today’s college students can scarcely recall a life free of internet trolls!

The one thing that is distinctive about America historically has been the fact that we are all able to engage in public discourse without the political becoming personal.

I'm just upset that we've been distracted by so much noise and vulgarity when we could be trying to talk about how our country can get stronger.

Let no one ever think for a moment that national debate means national division.

Let's start to have a grown up debate in this country about who we are and where we want to go and what kind of country we want to build.

To me, the real 'state of the union' is found in how Americans react to current events.

Dialogue between people of differing views is critical for fostering understanding in a democracy.

Politics has high and low moments. Sometimes it brings out the better angels of our nature; sometimes baser instincts.

Wherever the relevance of speech is at stake, matters become political by definition, for speech is what makes man a political being.

America is ready for intelligent talk. I am ready to bring some humanity to TV.

Admitting the force of these contentions, nevertheless, the custom of meeting together in public assembly for the consideration of the most serious, the most exalted topics of human interest is too vitally precious to be lost.

My hope is that we would begin to have a dialogue in this country about the importance of civility. We can have strong differences, but it does seem to me that most of the country believes it's gone to critical mass in what I would call the professional class across the political spectrum - left and right.

There is this absurd assumption that the revitalisation of the public sphere is always a good thing. I think people tend to confuse 'civic' and 'civil,' and they believe that everything that is done by citizens is necessarily a good thing because you build a network, an association.

The people currently in charge have forgotten the first principle of an open society, namely that we may be wrong and that there has to be free discussion. That it's possible to be opposed to the policies without being unpatriotic.

Democracies in history always suffered from the necessity of uniting with much of the best in human nature a mass of ignorance and brutality lying at the bottom of all societies.

I don't believe the makeup of America is as solid as it was 40 years ago. Society has become more selfish and, as a result, less dedicated to the common good. Millions hail a culture that is now more concerned with money and appearances than with genuine accomplishment.

America remains an open society in which opposing forces can surface and clash, a necessary precondition for their solution.

How to Turn Democrats & Republicans Into Americans

In many countries traditional bonds of civitas have been subject to a gradual erosion and their inhabitants become disinherited without realizing it.

The politicians are not the only people who are in their own silos. Many of our citizens only watch or listen to the news that they want to hear, and if there is anything else, they turn it off. We all need to listen to the people who are on the other side.

I readily concede that a prime minister is not required to speak on every occasion or on every subject, but when there is a duty to speak, silence is unacceptable. Silence can be a strategy, silence can be a tactic, but silence can never be an answer to the ills of our polity and the fault lines of our society.

There is no civil discourse left and it is really sad.

As a country, we still have a lot of work to do. We need to agree on some basic rules for civil discourse.

We should not have the president of the United States referring to segments of American society as the enemy of the people.