Is there hope for civility in the 2016 election?

Presidential candidate Donald Trump (3th L) speaks while Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ben Carson, and Ted Cruz (R-TX) take part in the Republican Presidential Debate.

Elections are meant to be competitive and contentious, but this season has been peppered with insults and frustration. And we're not past the primaries yet.

Pick out a word to describe the tone of this election season. Any word.

Maybe you might say "angry" Bernie Sanders-style.

Or perhaps "cut-throat," when Donald Trump made fun of Marco Rubio's response to the 2012 State of the Union, where he infamously took an awkward drink of water.

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But out of any word that came to mind, you probably didn't think of "civil."

Elections are meant to be competitive and contentious, but this election season has been peppered with insults and frustration. And we're not past the primaries yet.

Is this the future of American politics?

Larry Rosenthal, director of the Center on Civility and Democratic Engagement at UC-Berkeley, joins Take Two.