Crayton Webb and Danielle Rugoff at the Austin American-Statesman
Forty-five years ago, a group of young Texans from business, professional and academic circles came together to convene the various segments of the state in a nonpartisan, nonpolitical and non-adversarial setting to address the problems confronting Texas. The result: The Texas Lyceum. Today, the Lyceum endures and brings together Texans across political ideology, identity, geography and sector. Earlier this year the Lyceum launched a Campaign for Civility calling on elected officials at the local, state and federal levels to adopt core values that have stood the test of time; principles that are the cornerstone of our democracy:
• To engage in civil discourse on critical public policy issues facing our communities.
• To seek to understand before being understood.
• And to exercise the ability to disagree without being disagreeable.
The annual Texas Lyceum Poll, which was released this past week, shows that Texans are ready for this campaign:
• 69% of survey respondents believe it is possible for people to disagree about politics respectfully and that nasty exchanges are avoidable.
• Elected officials were cited by the poll respondents as the entity most responsible for causing divisions among Americans (42%). More so than social media (28%), cable news channels (13%) and other countries (4%).