Losing ground

Do people want unending divisions?

Common Ground is hard to find. Notice the capitalization. It would be entirely accurate to make that statement using lowercase letters for “common ground,” at least when the discussion centers on politics. Survey after survey of Americans confirms worries that hostility and divisiveness do harm to the country. People tell pollsters they want a less contentious nation.

In the immediate instance, though, what’s hard to find is a specific organization, thus the uppercase letters. Former State Sen. Jim Hendren of Sulphur Springs last week said Common Ground AR, a group he formed in 2021 to support leaders and candidates focused on working together rather than exacerbating divisions, is no more.

The nonprofit has gone inactive, Hendren told the Democrat-Gazette’s Doug Thompson. The former Republican declared it a “good effort” that may come back in some other form. Only he knows whether that’s a reality or an attempt to salve the wound of a failed attempt at recivilizing politics in these United States.

Whatever its status today, for some, the group’s short existence offered hope in a political environment in which progress toward unifying solutions is too often sacrificed to partisan strategies. In other words, victories today often appear to be less about the advancement of pragmatic policies than about bolstering one’s party and its capacity to point to the “other side” as the enemy of all that’s good and pure.

Hyperbole? Perhaps, but how many times do Arkansans need to be told any opposition to ideas coming out of the governor’s office must come from the “radical left” or the “woke mob?”

We cite Gov. Sarah Sanders as a highly visible example of today’s venomous style of politics, but she’s not the totality of the problem. She wasn’t in office when Hendren, a longtime Arkansas political figure, stepped away from the Republican Party and launched what became an effort to find and support pragmatic Republican candidates focused less on party politics and more on the state’s challenges.

Hendren himself had forged a political kinship with now-former state Sen. Joyce Elliott, a Democrat from Little Rock with whom he had strong policy differences. But they focused considerable energy on finding areas where they might work together. When they disagreed with each other, they invested in doing so with some grace. These colleagues in the Senate embraced the concept that disagreement doesn’t require hatred or treating each other as enemies.

Are such sentiments lost in politics?

A lot of Americans prefer Hendren’s approach. In November, the Walton Family Foundation released results of a national survey that found a desire among Americans for collaboration and compromise. The survey showed people overall have some appreciation for listening to others and making room for compromise, as many of them practice in their daily lives, according to the foundation.

Eight in 10 Americans, however, worry about how divided society is, the foundation’s survey showed. An astounding 88% said people need to be willing to work together with those who hold different beliefs.

Is this a mass case of “Do as I say, not as I do?”

A Pew Research Center survey released in September said just 10% of Americans say they always or often feel hopeful about politics, while 65% say they always or often feel exhausted when thinking about politics.

Common Ground AR’s formation was based on the idea that the state needed fewer political leaders on the fringes and more of them purposely focused on finding agreement on policy matters to advance Arkansas and its people. Call it unity. Call it pragmatism. Call it common sense. It looked to us like an effort that could acknowledge differences and even disagreements, but sought to avoid accentuating them for political purposes. The principle seemed to be that Arkansans can find enough issues where advancements are possible if leaders can free themselves from partisan fealty as their chief priority.

The folks who wield power today might suggest there’s plenty of common ground in their political work, and it’s just people who dislike the political landscape in Arkansas or nationally who are upset with the power shift. But we never got the sense Common Ground AR wanted to change or dictate outcomes so much as it sought to calm the virulence that exists between people of differing perspectives. Its mission pushed for political leaders to be Arkansans first by embracing opportunities to solve the challenges that face every resident of the state, not just the Republicans or the Democrats.

If the inactive status of the group Hendren founded says anything, it might be that it’s hard to promote the middle ground when political strategies are so focused on making answers appear either black or white. But does every question or challenge really have to end with “I’m right and you’re wrong?”

The surveys suggest Americans are tired of that. At least that’s how they answer. Could it be we say one thing, but behave differently when we vote, when we post to social media and when we’re evaluating political candidates?

The common ground we need in Arkansas and beyond is a greater capacity to view others not as enemies, but as people who simply have different ideas, some of which might have merit if given a chance.

“When you get worried is when polarization turns into dehumanization — a sense that the other is somehow less than human, or evil or unable to share your decent human values,” Nealin Parker told The Associated Press in September. Parker is executive director of a national group known as Common Ground USA that works to resolve political differences by building trust among Americans.

The Arkansas group that shared that name didn’t last long. Perhaps that raises a question that’s unfortunate if the answer is yes: Is common ground not even a desirable goal among the two political parties and the influential people within them?

We could all stand less time with social media and fewer echo chamber experiences that our reliance on the internet seems to promote. Rather than argue with a keyboard warrior hiding behind anonymity, perhaps it’s worth devoting time to real conversations with neighbors and friends, even those who think differently. It doesn’t require giving up one’s values to listen to the concerns of others in our communities.

Arkansans, and Americans more broadly, would also do well to translate the desire for collaboration they say they share into votes for pragmatic and reasonable candidates at the ballot box. The fewer people elected from the political extremes the better our state and nation will function in the years to come.