Bridging the Partisan Divide

A cause for hope and a call to action

This week I was struck by the headline of an op-ed in the New York Times: “Is There a Way to Dial Down the Political Hatred?” The author, Molly Worthen, is described as “a historian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who writes frequently about America’s religious culture.” In the early paragraphs of her piece, she writes:

“Over the past six months Mr. Biden has been warning us, in his frank and ecumenical way, that Americans have become a bunch of idol worshipers. He’s right. We have transformed political hatreds into a form of idolatry. A team of researchers analyzed a range of survey data and concluded that ‘out-party hate’ now seems to shape American voting decisions more than race or religion do. ‘The foundational metaphor for political sectarianism is religion,’ the researchers wrote in the journal Science last fall, based on ‘the moral correctness and superiority of one’s sect.’ Political hatred has become Americans’ animating faith, a chief source of existential meaning.”[1]

If Dr. Worthen and the researchers she cites are correct in their diagnosis of our national malady, what hope can there be for a conversion from the religion of political hatred to a more charitable civic faith? And what are the first steps in the journey towards such a conversion? I have only just begun to think about these questions, but here are some possible answers I’ve come up with so far.

A Cause for Hope

First, my source of hope is the fundamental decency of the vast majority of people on either side of the political divide. Although I usually surround myself with people with whom I agree on political issues, I have long and deep enough relationships with people with whom I disagree to be able to see beyond our disagreements. In my case, the most important of those relationships are familial, involving people I have known my whole life or at least for several decades. Before our society reached its current height of polarization, I learned that these people are among the most loving and trustworthy people I have ever encountered. I know that if we talked about politics there would be a sharp divide between us. I also know that if I needed their help with any life issue I was facing, or conversely if they needed mine, they would be there for me and I would be there for them. And if that is true in my own small circle, I have no reason to doubt that it’s true across America. We are a nation populated by good and caring people. If we can rise above our own political views to encounter the personhood of the other, we can start to chip away at the political polarization that plagues our current culture.

A Call to Action

Identifying specific actions to begin that process is another matter. I would start with this: Let’s identify a few core principles on which Americans of all political stripes should be able to agree before we continue debating the thornier, more nuanced issues. Three such principles come immediately to mind.

First is the principle that we adhere to the Rule of Law, meaning that we resolve our differences through legal and other peaceful processes, not through violence. As evidenced by the January 6th assault on the Capitol, political violence appears to be gaining acceptance among certain groups in our society. Self-described “militias” have formed and, by some accounts, have been amassing weapons that they are prepared to unleash on their fellow citizens and those entrusted with enforcing the law in order to accomplish their political ends. A fundamental starting point in turning down the partisan heat must be for people on both sides to disavow violent means to accomplish political goals.

Second, we must recognize voting rights as the primary, most fundamental right of our democracy. While reasonable minds may differ as to the most effective means for protecting Americans’ right to vote, efforts to suppress the vote, such as making voting more difficult for minorities, must be stopped and, when necessary, punished. As Attorney General Merrick Garland said in announcing the Justice Department’s plan to add more resources to the enforcement of voting rights:

“There are many things that are open to debate in America, but the right of all eligible citizens to vote is not one of them. The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy, the right from which all other rights ultimately flow. In introducing the 1965 Voting Rights Act, President Johnson told the Congress, ‘It is wrong, deadly wrong, to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote.’ In signing the 1982 reauthorization of the act, President Reagan stated, ‘The right to vote is the crown jewel of American liberties and we will not see its luster diminished.’ And in signing the 2006 reauthorization, President Bush stated that the right of ordinary men and women to determine their own future lies at the heart of the American experiment.”[2]

Third, we should reaffirm America’s role in the world as a nation that promotes humanitarian values. To that end, we ourselves must avoid behaving in ways that are and will be perceived by other peoples as cruel or unjust. Our immigration policies and practices would be a good place to start.

These may not be the only core principles that could be chosen as a starting point for identifying common values across partisan lines, but they should be included among them. After all, if a large majority of Americans can’t agree on these three bedrock tenets, one has to wonder what it even means to be American.

Finally, the point of the exercise outlined here is not to expect a quick fix to bridge policy differences. Rather, the point should be to agree on a core foundation from which we can begin a more productive conversation. If we can find people on both sides of the divide to lead such an effort, while reaffirming the basic human decency that unites us, we may be able to continue a dialogue that will put us on a path to a better future.

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Notes:

[1]https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/11/opinion/god-religion-politics-partisanship.html

[2] https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/merrick-garland-voting-rights-policy-speech-transcript-june-11