This election season has been tainted by large doses of division and intolerance. A Syracuse University program is trying to cure those ills among its students and our community.
Most of us have witnessed or been involved in heated discussions about political issues and candidates. S-U Vice President for Civic Engagement and Education & Professor of Political Science Gretchen Ritter notes the divisions people feel seem to go deeper than ideas about politicians or their policies.
“(other causes are) economic inequality and loss of social mobility. Rapid demographic change is another and the rise of social media, and the prevalence of both misinformation and disinformation.”
Stark contrasts are nothing new in the nation’s or the region’s history. The Carter-Reagan presidential election or the Mario Cuomo to George Pataki to Andrew Cuomo Governors' shifts in New York polarized people along very different political visions. But Maxwell School Public Administration Professor Doctor Tina Nabatchi says the differing viewpoints now are more stark and more insidious.
“What I see now that feels different at least is that those divisions and disagreements are spilling over and creating distrust in our political institutions, distrust in our communities, and distrust in our family relationships.”
They’ve helped create a program – Life Together – to teach skills of disagreeing respectfully and communicating across differences. One key idea - that we actually share many more ideals than we disagree on – was evidence in a conversation between political consultants held as part of the program.
Democratic political strategist Meghan Hays finds in her several decades in politics, there’s definitely more vitriol in public than in the actual desires of elected representatives.
“I do believe that most politicians believe in the same baseline of wanting to make America better and wanting people to have better lives. It’s just how we get there that is very different,” Hays said. “I just feel everyone is out for their own and forgot about their entire community.”
Republican Political strategist Lance Trover has also found, in Congress there’s more agreement on issues than is often in the public debate.
“I think it starts with younger generations and understanding that people have different viewpoints, and that’s ok, that you can still disagree without being disagreeable,” offered Trover.
Both Trover and Hays shared with the gathering that they have many friends from across the political aisle, and in fact are dismayed that things are so polarized, even though they’re in the center of it. They blame in part primaries where the most extreme candidates tend to win, then carry polarized rhetoric to the general elections.
Ritter and Nabatchi want the Life Together series of events and programs to not just bridge divides, but teach skills to fend off the divisions. One skill is dispassionately being able to make a persuasive argument based on facts – that’s not challenging or insulting.
“I would add to that inquiry, being able to approach a conversation not with the idea of ‘I need to win, otherwise I lose’ perspective, but (rather) ‘my job is to learn from the other person,’” Nabatchi said. “... to think about areas where there are common ground.”
Nabatchi added the forums in which one has such conversations are important – i.e. not Facebook – so that people can discuss respectfully. And Ritter says individuals and institutions need to help those opportunities.
“It’s important as part of a community; it’s important as a student or a family member. We’re seeing the need, and I think being conscious about, ‘how do we provide structured opportunities for people to develop these skills is the right place to go.”
All of those in this story shared concerns that whatever the outcome of the election, a large percentage of people will be disappointed. How we work together to solve problems and improve lives is ultimately more important