What we don't need to work toward is polarizing America any greater than it is. Look, I'm up here in Washington, D.C., in the Congress of the United States, and we have, all day, a lot of verbal vomit that is doing enormous damage.

We talk about the '68 Democratic Convention. I was too young to really know a lot about it, but - and didn't even watch it, but I have read about it, and I know enough about it to know that it damaged the Democratic candidates.

The language has changed. When I grew up and watched the campaigns of John Kennedy, even with Richard Nixon, there was a lot higher level of civility. Now we describe a disagreement as an attack.

Emanuel Cleaver Quotes