Evan McMullin - Civility and Democracy

Part of UVU's Appomattox Project Brownbag Discussion Series - March 11, 2020

Evan McMullin is the executive director of Stand Up Republic and former presidential candidate as an independent conservative. He began his career at the Central Intelligence Agency for which he spent much of his service overseas running counter-terrorism and traditional intelligence operations. In 2011, McMullin joined Goldman Sachs’s Investment Banking Division in San Francisco where he worked on strategic and capital raising projects in the industrial, consumer products, and technology industries. He returned to government service in 2013 as a senior advisor to the Foreign Affairs Committee and later as chief policy director to the Republican Conference in the House of Representatives. In this role, he led national security, government reform, natural resources, and veterans’ healthcare initiatives.

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
2:54 Audience Responses: What Is Civility?
4:50 Audience Responses: What Is Incivility?
6:15 Audience Responses: How Do You Feel When Someone Calls for Civility?
9:02 Audience Responses: Is Debating Strenuously Necessarily Uncivil?
11:27 Abusing Calls for Civility
13:31 Tweets Replying to a Call for Civility
17:57 In-Groups and Out-Groups
25:59 Political Polarization: Introduction
28:02 Political Polarization: 1994
30:03 Political Polarization: 2004
34:35 Political Polarization: 2014
37:15 Political Polarization: 2017
41:07 Political Polarization: What Are the Causes?
44:31 Conclusion: Why Civility is So Important