Those who seek civility recognize the full humanity and interdependence of all. They do not taunt, lie, or place their own needs first.

It saddens me that Republicans in Congress are suffering from the trickle-down effect of Trump’s incivility, staining what Chief Justice John Paul Roberts called “the world’s greatest deliberative body.” Many appear to cherish power over fairness, to condone lies over truth, and to favor partisan support over Constitutional responsibility. In the process, opportunities for common good, interdependence of all, and full humanity die.

We think of civility as something people do, through fair and accountable interactions with one another.

Civility is also something groups of people do — clubs, congregations, organizations, corporations, and legislative bodies. Their civil discourse gives them credibility. People within them feel good about that credibility, and behave accountably themselves. They cherish their organizations’ traditions and work to preserve them. When leaders equivocate and ground rules falter, they realize that its civility is threatened. Perhaps civility dies, shriveling within the discourse and behavior. Negativity emerges. Pessimism prevails. A dark cloud settles.

Yes, the process of impeachment is unsettling. But the Congressional rush to favor partisanship over truth and facts denies the very legislative and judicial processes our democracy is constructed to preserve.

Why are Republicans so afraid of speaking truth to power? Who not wrest their identity away from their immoral leader? Perhaps because they believe their own power depends on a president they know to be deceitful. Why don’t they refashion a Senatorial identity based on Constitutional dicta and carry out the impeachment process as they swore to do under oath, seeking testimony and judging the facts to get to truth? Hearing John R. Bolton’s testimony would actually give them stature and help Republicans not only deal squarely with Trump’s quid-pro-quo travesty but also its apparent coverup.

Instead they obfuscate. Outrageously so, like House member Jim Jordan, a Republican helper in the proceedings; or equivocally, like Rob Portman, a distinguished long-term Republican who acknowledges lies and wrong behavior in the Ukraine affair but hedges that it doesn’t warrant impeachment; or silently, like those who are grateful they do not have to seek reelection soon.

We can only hope the pondering ones — among them Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Lamar Alexander, Corey Garner — have the courage to undertake long-term thinking, be politically courageous, and lead “the liberation of the Republican party” (quoting Joe Scarborough) from the lies, deceit, and dissembling that is trickling down from President Trump through Mitch McConnell.

For ordinary citizens, civility is about personal and social responsibility to ourselves, our family and friends, our communities, our country. For Congressional legislators, civility is about political responsibility, not to party but to right, reason, and truth in service to the larger constituency of America and its common good.

Republicans now have an opportunity to breathe new life into a Senatorial civility that is wavering. Doing so might just create for them a civility identity at the same time it transforms civic discourse in America.