The Illusion of Political Harmony

The current partisan rancor in our society may seem extreme and unusually vicious, but a deep read of history makes it clear that respectful bi-partisanship is the rare exception rather than the rule.  Though we fear that today’s highly emotional political bickering and culture wars may somehow cause irreversible rifts in our national unity, the emotions in play may not be nearly as long-lasting or as corrosive as others in our past.

What is perhaps more remarkable than the current enmity is the predisposition that all humans appear to have for highly emotional opinions and positions on various issues.  The irrational rage and fury that accompany any political activity seem dramatically out of proportion to other human behaviors. 

It may be that the anonymity of political belief is partly to blame, like the driver whose road rage is so explosive until he or she sees a neighbor behind the wheel of the other car.  Most of us develop our political ideology in a cocoon of our own thoughts and the echo chamber of like-minded people.  

Our outrage grows as we see others with the audacity to question our beliefs and come to completely different conclusions.  And sadly, we find it difficult to ‘cross the aisle’ in civil discussion.  Our emotions quickly raise the conversation to a fever pitch and we stop listening or probing thoughtfully.

Another factor in creating disharmony is the media (both traditional and social) scrutiny and amplification of every issue.  People find it expedient to voice extreme and provocative opinions in order to get coverage and ‘views’.  Dog whistle phrases, stereotypes, generalizations and other tropes become ubiquitous.  Thoughtful, data-rich analysis is a rarity.  We are far more entertained by a candidate ‘scoring points’ than elucidating a carefully thought out position.

American political life has always been tumultuous.  From the early battles over federalism versus democratic-republicanism, which led to incredibly vitriolic personal attacks, through the multi-decade battle over slavery, to the violent years of reconstruction, the years of anti-immigrant fever (which has never really abated), the years of industrial robber barons and the opposing worker rights movements, the prohibition years, the years of feverish accusations over communism and socialism, and to the  divide over the Vietnam War and the counter-culture movement, the US has never really had a lengthy period of political harmony.

Remember those oft-romanticized halcyon days of the fifties?  The economy may have been great (we were, after all, the only industrial power left standing after a cataclysmic world war that killed over 100 million people!) but things were not so friendly in the political sphere.  The McCarthy witch hunts and general paranoia about communism created a rather toxic environment for politicians. 

And the sixties brought a potent mix of civil rights, the Great Society, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution and the general counter-culture movement.  The reactionary Moral Majority of the Nixon period was not so very different from the religious right and tea party of today.

One of the primary examples of presumed bi-partisanship is the era of Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill.  Their purported chumminess has been debunked often but the myth persists.  The compromises that were reached in that period only came about after initial hardball efforts that softened up the opponents.  O’Neill referred to Reagan as ‘Herbert Hoover with a smile’ and ‘a cheerleader for selfishness’.  Reagan referred to Tip as ‘a round thing that gobbles up money’.   Like most human beings of different viewpoints, when they actually met and sat down together, they managed to find enough in common – their Irish ancestry for example – to appear cordial.

No, the sad truth is that human beings are simply not good at working rationally through issues.  We quickly become emotional, inarticulate children in the face of opposing views.  Our nation has always had many challenges – it was created and grew through immigrants who conquered and drove out the original inhabitants and then imported slaves to expand the economy.   

Indeed, every nation has a set of ancient ills that continues to plague its modern attempts to create harmony.  The complexity of these issues makes it easy for many divergent opinions to exist.  We just need to become mature enough as human beings to work rationally together to negotiate common goals.  It shouldn’t be so hard.