In a time of crisis, American citizens often look for guidance and take their cues from the subset of American citizens who are most engaged and informed. Yet study after study is now showing that this cohort of Americans is driving the engine of American division. As University of Pennsylvania professor Yphtach Lelkes told Edsall, “Ironically, reflective citizens, who are sometimes seen as ideal citizens, might be the subset of strong partisan identifiers most likely to fall in line with the party.” Consequently, “The democratic dilemma may not be whether low information citizens can learn what they need to know, but whether high information citizens can set aside their partisan predispositions.”
These statistics and studies confirm our personal experiences. I speak and write quite a bit about national polarization, and when I criss-cross the country, I often ask this question: “Are the people you know who are most obsessed with politics in general more or less angry — more or less gracious — than the rest of your friends?” Few people respond that their political friends are the most hopeful and tolerant members of their community.
Given the extraordinary complexity and difficulty of most political and cultural challenges, American activism and political engagement should be marked by humility and openness to opposing views. After all, who has the easy and obvious formula for racial reconciliation? For peace in the Middle East? For the repair of the American family? For sustained economic growth across all social classes in the midst of an ongoing technological revolution?
But I suppose if you believe that your opponent is more jackal than human, then there’s no real need to engage — except to destroy. All the interesting conversations will be on your side of the aisle only.
There is a link between the lethal fantasies Edsall outlines in his piece and the more widespread impulse to “merely” ruin the careers and livelihoods of our people we despise. At the edges, partisans are fine with seeing their political opponents physically suffer. It’s far more mainstream to hope to see them financially and socially ruined.
It’s in this atmosphere that I’m increasingly of the view that the vanishing, bipartisan class of civil libertarians represent an important ingredient in the glue that keeps America together. The fundamental idea that we should defend the rights of others that we would like to exercise ourselves often requires that we gain greater sympathetic understanding of our opponents’ points of view. After all, the defense of liberty in the public square can never be merely legalistic. To be effective it also has to humanize.
And crucially, it also has to educate. There is simply no way to enjoy or cultivate a true culture of liberty without tolerating even terrible things. We human beings are messy mixtures of virtue and vice, and while there are vices so profound that they render a person unfit for presence in the public square, we should be very careful indeed before we try to punish a man for his thoughts. How many of history’s greatest artists — of its most interesting thinkers — would pass our modern partisan purity tests?
We cannot keep relying on our good luck to avoid a true crisis of division (and potential violence). I’m skeptical that Pelosi’s current impeachment analysis — which places national unity over the demands of her angry activist base — represents a true shift from toxic partisanship. After all, her caucus just passed a grievously unconstitutional and authoritarian bill that not only limits free speech but exposes more citizens to potential social shaming and economic reprisal. But her impeachment analysis still represents the right approach. It’s past time for politicians and activists to recognize the urgency of the moment. Partisan hate is spiraling out of control.
Leave a Reply