Tackling Polarization

The fact that American politics are polarized today is not a revelation. Trying to understand the reasons for this circumstance is another story.

Ezra Klein, the former Washington Post economic columnist, has published his take on our current warfare in a new book, Why We’re Polarized.  Leaving the Post in 2014, he started Vox, a news and opinion website, noted for its explanatory journalism. He continues to be editor-at-large of the website.

Klein describes as the subject of his book: “How American politics became a toxic system, why we participate in it, and what it means for our future….”  Our current political system and environment he says provides fertile ground for the proliferation of lamentable polarization.

The presidential election of 2016 drew even more attention to the issue in part because the outcome was so unexpected. Clinton’s long time presence on the political stage as well as the dynamics left over from the 2008 contest between firsts: a woman v. an African American. In 2016, she and her supporters felt she was “entitled.”

Also, Trump as a candidate was viewed as an outlier; a misogynist who had never been elected to public office, nor held any position of public trust. Klein offers evidence, however, that Trump’s election performance was not that different from recent GOP presidential nominees. He attributes that to “negative partisanship.”

“We will justify almost anything or anyone so long as it helps our side, and the result is a politics devoid of guardrails, standards, persuasion or accountability.”

To which Klein poses the question, “Aren’t we better than this?”          

Polarization of this nature has contributed to gridlock when either party has attempted to govern. Hence, American voters have become frustrated as electoral victory fails to produce responsive government. A major factor in Klein’s view is our focus on personalities in the political arena. The result he says is “one election’s heroes turn into the next election’s scoundrels.”

Referring to the many different sources of polarization, Klein focuses on “political identity.” All Americans engaged in politics are engaged in identity politics according to Klein, but the term has been “weaponized” and used to disparage some historically marginalized groups and label them as overly self-interested.

In reality, as Americans we have countless identities.  Some are actually in conflict with others, while others seem to be ignored completely. For example, the white blue collar workers in the Carolinas who seem to consistently vote against their own economic interest.

Complicating our efforts to create some sense of order in our political system is the tendency to merge our political identities with our racial, religious, geographic, ideological and cultural identities. The urban v. rural divide splinters our unity as well.

Today’s America is a much more diverse nation than was the case even seventy-five years ago. Our political institutions, created for the most part nearly 250 years ago and last modified to any great extent in the 1960s, are having difficulty accommodating the fractious partisanship.

A primary objective of the framers of the US Constitution was to create a system that would prevent the consolidation of power within any branch of government or at any level. So members of the two houses of congress are elected according to a different schedule and structure and neither house is in sync with the election of a president.

As result, the question of who represent a majority of American voters is often unclear. Everyone is aware that Trump won the 2016 election in the Electoral College but did not receive a majority of the popular vote. Most probably do not realize the GOP majority in the Senate received fewer votes than did the Democratic minority.

Often we hear pleas for greater bipartisanship among our elected leaders, but as Klein notes the parties are too evenly divided to encourage cooperation. Instead, each considers minority status temporary and prioritizes seeking advantage in the next election. The result is generally gridlock.

The parity between the two parties also influences how they campaign. There is less and less emphasis on trying to persuade members of the opposition and more attention given to achieving the maximum turnout among partisans. This tends to harden the divide once the campaign is over and governance is the order of the day.

Polarization has also undermined unity within the parties. Congressional incumbents recognize that only the most highly motivated voters participate in primaries. Such voters do not view bipartisanship as a virtuous activity.  

Ironically, bipartisanship is more evident when one party has a significant majority. The minority party at that time recognized the only way to achieve any of its objectives required a willingness to compromise.

Most voters do not constantly monitor government, so parties play an essential role in a democratic political system. Since we are not likely to have an ongoing interest in every area of governmental responsibility, parties help us to manage the choices that confront us when we must choose our elected representatives.

Klein does not offer any magic bullet to reduce polarization, but he does make some suggestions worth pondering.

First, we should adopt an attitude of mindfulness.  That is that we become more sensitive to our various political identities and recognize when politicians and the media are manipulating us. Think about the white blue collar workers in the Carolinas.  

And second, we might reduce focus on national politics and become more concerned and involved with state and local politics. He cites several advantages in making local political identity more powerful:

S    1) Since we live among people more like us, politics is less polarized.

2    2) Questions are more tangible and less symbolic, discussions are more constructive and less  hostile.

3    3) We can have more impact on state and local politics than on national politics, and it feels  empowering to make a difference.

4    4) Being involved with state and local politics will make us more effective, because it’svaluable  experience and because local officials frequently become federal officials; they keep in touch  with people they’ve known along the way.

Klein finished Why We’re Polarized before the coronavirus struck the US.  Subsequent events make his recommendation to give more attention to state and local politics unusually foresighted.