How to strengthen the US in a polarized age
I grew up in a largely conservative family, in a conservative home. Yet every day I went out into the world to school, I more often than not went into a neighborhood or school that appeared anything but my prevailing home atmosphere. At school, my friends often were of a race other than mine, or at the least, came from very different cultural or socioeconomic backgrounds, and consequently, held differing opinions from the ones I had been taught were right and true.
This somehow became a theme for my entire life; bridging two worlds that seem frequently loathed to acknowledge the humanity of the other. When I lived in New York City while attending graduate school, I often defended conservatives to liberals. Back home in Tennessee, I frequently defend liberals to conservatives.
Continually reconciling these two opposing views, even as they have grown further and further apart in the last decade, is probably why I was not surprised at the deeply divided results of the 2020 election.
We know the race was close. Joe Biden leads Donald Trump in ongoing counting a week after Election Day 50.8% to 47.5% in the popular vote, a margin that has remained relatively stable for days. While Biden has gained more votes than any presidential candidate in history, Republicans are poised to gain seats in the House, and the Senate may end up evenly divided.
In other words, this election will move some of the puzzle pieces around, but it will settle nothing in the way of an overall consensus in this country. We can face this outcome one of two ways: we can allow gridlock and indiscriminate anger to continue, or we can learn to live with and benefit from such close contact with people who do not share our views of the world.
Protect institutions and then allow them to function
There are two things we must do to move forward in an era of close division.
First, we must become more results oriented and protective of our institutions’ functionality.
Over time, my principles and overall goals have become less partisan and more institutional. Our Constitution is a flawed document, produced by flawed men, creating flawed deliberative bodies, but I would still put it up against anybody’s constitution in the world, in history.
Our government’s various organs must be allowed to function freely. Any overt attempt at subversion must be called out as illegitimate.
This means we must hold even those with whom we agree to account when we see them straying, as former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie appeared to do Thursday when he indicated that Trump should produce actual evidence of fraud or stop talking about it.
Value country over self-interest
Second, we must recognize the validity of those with whom we disagree.
Not everyone who voted for Trump is a racist xenophobe. For millions of immigrants who escaped harsh regimes in Cuba or Venezuela, Trump’s hard line on those countries is a welcome antidote.
On the other hand, scarcely few Biden supporters want to burn down cities and inflict an orgy of disorder upon the country. Biden’s supporters represent a coalition of beliefs ranging from Bernie Sanders, a self-identified democratic socialist, to former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a conservative Republican. Such coalitions were once common in U.S. politics. Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan arguably won the presidency with the same general assemblage.
This is not to say that we should not call out individual deceptions and false pretenses when we see them. Far from it; this is a duty.
For those of us who value democratic norms and functioning institutions, remaining calm while facing up to the disarray of the last few years has proven a stiff test, especially when it seems half the population is either blissfully unaware of or intentionally naïve to what seems obvious. But simplistic name calling and hot words will not convince anyone.
More than anything, the key to moving forward in an era of division is to value this country above ourselves. Politics many times forces us into making what amounts to false choices on the promise that one choice or another will grant us something that has never existed or should exist again.
But sometimes we need to focus on what this country already has, and how much we have to lose.
Alex Hubbard is a columnist for the USA TODAY Network – Tennessee. Email him at dhubbard@tennessean.com or tweet to him at @alexhubbard7.