Taking a kinder, gentler tone against the rudeness of politics
CBSN
Let's face it: this presidential campaign is not gonna win any awards for civility. Policy proposals aside, there's been name-calling, vulgarity, and plain old meanness. And at times, it can seem like the rudeness of our politics has infected our personal interactions as well.
How did we get here? And, on the eve of this election, what can we do about it?
Well, to start, consider something simple: tone of voice.
Five presidents in U.S. history have won the presidency without winning the popular vote, and the most recent to do so was Donald Trump in 2016. His opponent that year, Hillary Clinton, won over 2.8 million more votes than Trump nationwide, but she lost enough key states to be defeated in the Electoral College, 306 to 232.
We've all seen a lot of political ads lately. But in battleground states, it's a tsunami. Jack Levis is an independent voter in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, which makes him one of the most desirable voters on the planet: "Emails, texts, phone calls, it's in my news feed, it's in social media. In the last two days, I counted, I had 30 spam emails in there all about the election," he said. "It's unbelievable."