If you must label me, call me tired — of labels
The other day I was watching an interview of a presidential candidate. The interviewer was trying to get the candidate to admit he was a capitalist. He resisted, even though he was a small business owner and an obvious pro-business governor. Three times the interviewer attempted to entice him to embrace the label of capitalist. Each time he would not accept the label but rather tried to explain what he has done as a business person at the same time explaining that capitalism has not benefited everyone equally.
Why are the media and the political noise machine obsessed with labels? Capitalist, socialist, populist, racist, nationalist, fascist, libertarian? It seems we love to pin a simple moniker on someone to put them in a box. The presumption is that a label will help you understand the person. The reality is just the opposite. A label does not and cannot define a person. We may think we understand a person if we can put them in one camp or another. Then we can essentially dismiss them.
The inconvenient truth is that everyone has some biases around the thorny issue of race. Moreover, many of us would embrace some capitalist ideas while also criticizing the failures and results of unbridled capitalism. If someone accepts universally popular social programs such as Medicare and Social Security, does this make them a socialist?
We all know deep down that life is more complicated than this. Real-life problems and solutions are not rooted in a binary choice: left or right. But complex and nuanced ideas are not the stuff of political food fights. The 2020 campaign is poised to ramp up and the labels are already flying hot and heavy.
Too often, labels slide into name-calling, fear-mongering, and scapegoating. Labels allow us to keep yelling at one another rather than stimulate us to think deeply and subtly about complex and difficult problems. While politicians often spit out the rhetoric of wanting to solve problems, being a problem solver in today’s environment does not win elections. Elections are won by demonizing those on the other side, making them seem outrageous and even evil.
What are some possible solutions?
Stop using the labels. No one can be defined forever by every statement they have ever made in their life. Allow people to explain their positions in more than a 10-second sound bite. Don’t be satisfied with quick and easy one-liners. Try and articulate the other side’s position even though you don’t agree with it. Focus on the facts and experiences that undergird one’s opinions.
Most disagreements arise from choosing to look at different sets of facts. Ask questions that are thoughtful and require answers that focus on solving problems, not eliciting emotion. Granted, policy debates are sometimes boring. They are not sensational. They don’t produce the TV ratings that are driven by tribalism and the self-righteousness that make us feel good. Respectful policy debates can be so much more helpful and uniting.
If we can agree on facts and not just spin, we may be able to come together to actually admit that we do hold values in common. We may discover we have the same goals though different strategies for solutions. We may also learn to respect one another’s positions. To the cynic this may sound naïve. But wouldn’t it be a great start?
Or, we can just keep exhausting ourselves by yelling at one another from our comfortable islands.
I for one am getting tired.