Jeremy David Engels/The Conversation Democracy depends upon using words wisely. With the right words, citizens can live and work together, even in disagreement – and resolve conflicts peacefully. Today, politicians routinely describe their opponents as “enemies,” disparaging them as “evil,” “monsters,” “demonic” and “garbage. By creating the impression that people "on the other side” are irredeemable monsters, such talk undercuts the potential for civic cooperation – for what’s the point of trying to understand, and to work with, someone who is “evil”? More fundamentally, this “us vs. them” rhetoric of “ enemyship” – as I call it – undermines the chances for peaceful coexistence between people who see the world differently. I am a professor of rhetoric who studies the
