The problem with partisanship in the political divide in the United States is that folks on the other side of the aisle have completely lost their minds, especially in the last few years.
We know our political party aligns with the mainstream of American viewpoints while the other side has gone to the extreme, adhering to fringe ideas out of alignment with sensible, commonsense policies with which most Americans fundamentally and wholeheartedly agree. We see it on social media like Facebook, Twitter, cable news and Internet news websites where posts and comments reiterate the wackos, weirdos, self-styled activists and talking heads who elevate the fringe so it appears that their most egregious extremists are their new leaders.
Their party’s political figures repeat the same fringe concepts and talking points in campaign mailers and on Sunday news networks, to better align with their base. They waltz through their primaries and then typically pivot towards the center to pick up the independents and moderates who don’t see how wild and crazy their ideas really are.
We really have to wonder if the politicians on their side legitimately believe this stuff or if they’re just good and pretending to for the sake of political expediency.
We know we simply can’t talk to these people because the moment we try to, we’re labeled with all sorts of crazy slurs and it just isn’t worth the hassle — we’ve seen on Twitter what happens when people even try.
We admit that many folks on our side of the aisle are wacko too — reacting to the excesses we felt in the last presidential administration. I don’t necessarily want to plug my favorite news show, especially one that sometimes pushes the line from mainstream to a bit out there that I don’t always agree with, but the host often makes a lot a excellent rhetorical points.
On social media, our partisan activists often breach civil discourse to espouse wild ideas, attack regular folks on the other side as being out of step with and not worth acknowledging as normal or human — and some really crazy stances that I don’t agree with, but many people on our side do. They are more vocal and meaner than I am and I simply don’t want to pick a fight with a supposed ally, lest I be called a traitor to our side, in lockstep with them and cast off as an enemy to our ideology. I’ll just ignore them because in the end, accepting one loud weirdo on our side is fine considering this: America as we know it is at risk. They’re going to destroy America if they hold power.
Now, is this a Republican speaking about Democrats?
Or a Democrat speaking about Republicans?
Yes.
Read it again and pretend you’re on the other side of the political aisle when you do.
This isn’t merely a rhetorical exercise, but the substance of an October report, “The Ties that Blind: Misperceptions of the Opponent Fringe and the Miscalibration of Political Contempt,” written by Virginia A. Parker and Anne E. Wilson from Wilfrid Laurier University, Matthew Feinberg from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and Alexa Tullett from The University of Alabama.
The report relied on five studies that concluded, “Only a minority of partisans on each side endorsed their political in-group’s most fringe, arguably egregious views, but political opponents consistently estimated that these views were held by a majority.”
When Americans believe false “political caricatures,” reinforced by pundits who intentionally parody and satirize the other side’s actual political and social beliefs for ratings, clicks, hits and likes, they help falsely equate the other side’s most extreme views as their side’s mainstream.
According to the report, “Current levels of inter-party hostility can have disastrous consequences by undermining motivation to communicate and compromise, fundamental features of the democratic process.”
The report argues that studies demonstrate that people are less likely to criticize their own side’s more extreme viewpoints, making conformity to a “norm” “believed to be widespread” more common — real or falsely so. This conformity “may discourage dissenters from speaking up” reinforcing the extreme views until they do become widely believed.
Regardless of party, we have to speak with “them” on the other side about the 95% of things we agree on. Partisan talking heads and politicians profit off our division, fear and hate and keep us from compromising and passing legislation that benefits us all.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
Editor’s Note
This editorial won Second Place at the 2023 Arizona Newspapers Association’s Better Newspapers Contest on Thursday, Aug. 31, in Category 3 [3,500 to 10,000 circulation].
