If you could get a deal that would guarantee that one of the two major US political parties could fully dominate politics within 10-20 years and have a permanent majority, locking out the other, but you wouldn’t know in advance if it would be the Republicans or Democrats, would you take it?
That feels like a way to look at our current situation. I see a constant rise in energy from both sides in thinking that the other side cannot govern at any cost. This leads to more extreme behaviors and a vicious cycle of reactions on both sides. Where does this lead? Right now I have a hard time seeing a path back from the brink and that neither side will be happy until the other is completely subjugated.
I don’t want this future. As much as I personally have plenty of concerns about the modern Republican party, I have no interest in seeing an unchecked Democratic majority dominating our politics either (and yes, I do understand that we are a long, long way from that reality now). And none of my Republican readers should want to see the Democratic party crushed and for right-wing leaders to have no counter-balance from the other side.
But right now all of the incentives are to dig in deeper and go after each other harder. Politicians are not rewarded for working with the other side and compromising. Voters get energized by politicians who fight for what they believe in, not for trying to lead and bring people together. News organizations make money (and therefore sustain themselves) when they stoke conflict and make everything into a national emergency. Fewer and fewer of us engage with sources that make us think and challenge ourselves rather than making us feel better about ourselves or worse about our opponents.
The view that we are in civil war-like conditions and that we should lean into it is present from both sides. Here are just two examples I came across within one day last month.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/07/opinion/brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court.html
So what do we do about this? Let’s start with what I am NOT suggesting. I am not advocating that individuals should stand down and stop fighting for what they believe in. I am not blindly calling for more ‘civility’. Everything about the way our politics and media ecosystem currently functions rewards extremism. Backing down allows those with power to further cement their power. And I am also not saying that we should treat all views equally and assume that some vague place in the middle between all positions should be respected and that both sides are always equally to blame for divisions in our society.
My views and anyone else’s on the causes of these divisions and who is ‘right’ on the big issues of our time is irrelevant to what I am getting at here. It matters, but it is not the only thing that matters. The reality that there are major schisms in our society and that we have to deal with them head-on. Dismissing the tens of millions of people who disagree with us on any number of important issues doesn’t make them go away, and writing them off as [pick one: stupid, mean, racist, ignorant, apathetic, hypocritical, intolerant, etc.] doesn’t change the reality of the existence of those beliefs.
We have to find ways to engage and to not see those we disagree with as the enemy. Part of that is not supporting politicians who treat policy disagreements as signs of bad faith. Part of it is also recognizing that our own beliefs are grounded in assumptions that are often not shared by others and that there is value in questioning and understanding those assumptions. We are all Americans with different experiences driving different value systems that cause us to see the world differently. We may not come to agreement on the right way forward for the country, but if we can’t even start from the point of view that we are all trying to do what is right then destructive forms of conflict will only increase.