Consensus Building: The Key Part is Sense

 

There are days when turning on the news feels like taking a hammer to your own forehead. The economy is bad. Gas prices continue climbing while our retirements dwindle. A war threatens to spread to Europe while our biggest adversaries seek to expand their power and global influence. Here at home, our politicians seem to have established yelling as the new baseline of conversation, and are more concerned with "getting the other guy" than actually governing. 

Sometimes, it seems like we are a binary country. You're red or blue. A one or a zero. A liberal or a conservative. You either want all guns to be banned or you believe everyone should have their own arsenal. We must be more divided than ever...

Except we aren't. We, however, are being convinced that we are by people who benefit from such rhetoric...and we're falling for it. 

The old expression in journalism was "if it bleeds, it leads." Directly, people are drawn to bad news. Plane crashes and bombings draw readers. Angry politicians being "outraged" at each other sells copy. Stories about people of disparate opinions working together to find compromises within difficult problems? BORING! 

Our parties have done a great job of creating "others." The person with a different affiliation is your enemy. They would ruin the country if their crackpot ideas were allowed to put into law! You are voting to save the soul of the nation.

This kind of finger pointing gets particularly nasty when things are bad. While complex problems require complex solutions, we, the public have been conditioned to simply say that everything is "the other guy's" fault. In the same way that our parties frequently provide no suggestions or solutions, we simply complain and respond with anger. 

So let's get to the point where "we aren't more divided than ever." Check out the results of several recent surveys: 

• A Harvard survey of approx 2100 adults going into the 2020 election indicated that 74% of Democrats, 78% of Republicans and 66% of Independents felt they had more in common with other voters than not.
• The same survey found strong consensus between voters regarding the importance of legal rights, ranging from privacy to personal healthcare: Privacy of personal data (93% ), voting (93%), racial equality (92%) and affordable health care (89%).
• Similarly, in 2020, two bipartisan groups, Common Ground Solutions and Voice of the People, sponsored this survey via the University of Maryland Program for Public Consultation. This substantial survey of over 80,000 Americans found consensus on a wide variety of issues.  For example: 
• The majority of Republicans and Democrats supported changes to social security funding policies to preserve the system.  Coincidentally, both parties supported additional taxation and reduction of benefits for exceptionally high earners. 
• Republicans and democrats both supported pro-environment policies, such as more energy-efficient buildings and inclusion of renewable energy as part of our national plan.
• Both parties also expressed the need for additional regulation of prescription drug prices for moderate income Americans.
• A majority of both parties supported increased food benefits for poor mothers.

If you take the time to read both of these surveys, you'll find even more areas of consensus. Although there are issues that are exceptions to this rule, I would argue that our challenges lie not in our goals but in our means. For example: 

• Gun violence: To over-simplify, one side may emphasize the need to ban or regulate types of firearms while the other wants to arm teachers and grocery store employees. The ultimate goal of either approach is to save lives. 
• Immigration: At our core, we are a nation of immigrants. People on both sides of this political divide are often very proud of their ethic heritage. Regardless of the bravado of some politicians, most people support BOTH border security and a legal path to citizenship.  
• The environment: Many of the same people who support additional petroleum drilling also love hiking and national parks. Many of the people who are against such measures have never camped in their lives. We can all agree we need clean water and air.
• Energy prices: This one is hurting ALL of us and nobody, republican or democrat, is happy about paying more at the pump. Instead of finger-pointing, let's come up with a plan...especially when it comes to helping the poorest of us heat their homes this winter. 

I do think a big part of our problem is forgetting how to be neighbors and to look around our own communities outside of a smartphone or laptop screen. Prior to social media and ubiquitous internet, our politicians weren't measured so much by their affiliation as their ability to get things done. These endeavors often meant collaborating with neighboring elected officials of different political parties. It was either "get it done" or "get voted out." These people got their hands dirty and figured out the issues instead of just casting blame. 

We are rapidly heading to a tipping point in our own communities and country in general. We can throw up our hands and say "there's nothing I can do." or we can begin figuring out our problems. We can cast blame or we can find solutions. We can start with goals or get hung up in the mechanics. 

I find that common goals are a great place to start, and a willingness to listen to ideas builds trust and respect between people. Let's focus on goals instead of means.