PART 1: We must engage
As 2023 gets into gear, we’re plagued by political extremism that prevents progress on many issues, so we need to recognize that extremism has become an essential problem. And we need to take actions to reduce or defeat it.
Extremism’s success lies in its ability to exploit division here in Colorado and around the country. It builds a political chasm, pitting rural against urban and religious against secular. These divisions also play out over differences in ethnicity, wealth, and education. As a result, animosity and political violence grow.
A November 2022 poll by the Institute of Politics and Public Service found that 8 in 10 Americans agreed they wanted “compromise and common ground as a goal for their political leaders.” Yet, 8 in 10 of these same Americans said they were, “tired of leaders compromising their values,” instead, wanting “leaders who stood up to the other side.”
You can see that it’s a complex, contradictory situation. We want common ground but on our terms.
There aren’t easy answers. Yet, more than a few Republicans and Democrats believe they can ignore extremism or live with it.
The Republican deniers:
The “poof” illusion. Many Republicans in Colorado privately say they are against extremism but publicly remain silent. They fear losing friends or losing business or losing elections. They wait for others to step up. Somehow, they mistakenly believe extremism will just mystically vanish with a poof.
The stealth strategy. Other Republicans believe they can finesse change by electing a few good people who will quietly install moderate policies without openly confronting extremist policies or politicians. But once these good people are elected, they get caught in a trap. If they try to change an extremist policy, they will be challenged in the next primary. So, they go along, justifying it by saying if they don’t win, they can’t get their moderate agenda passed. As a result, conservative moderates like Jeff Flake, Lamar Alexander, Ben Sasse, Roy Blunt, Rob Portman, Richard Burr, and Pat Toomey retire and fade away as a force for moderation. In the vacuum, extremist power grows.
The Democrat deniers:
Won’t take on Denver or DC. Many Democrats living in rural Colorado know that national and state party leaders do not understand their values. They don’t supply the time and money to support rural candidates or to solve many of the problems specific to rural Coloradoans. They believe that Republicans are “unpersuadable.” They focus on the city, suburbs, and the progressives who make up much of their base.
It is clear that large numbers of Republicans, conservatives as well as moderates, are fed up with their party’s extremism. Unless rural Colorado Democrats reach out to them, these areas will remain solidly Republican and Republican office holders will continue to take their constituents votes for granted.
The unaffiliated voter illusion: Some Democrats live with the illusion that because unaffiliated voters outnumber Republicans, talking with Republicans is unnecessary. But unaffiliated voters are not one uniform group. They comprise different segments, each with different motivations and needs:
Apolitical voters who shun politics and lack knowledge about issues and candidates.
Relationship protectors who continue to vote for their former party but changed affiliation to get along with friends, neighbors, and co-workers. They don’t want to be seen as blind followers of their party’s increasingly extremist positions.
The ultra-extreme who changed registration, not because their former party was too extreme, but because it was not extreme enough.
True moderates, who will vote for the candidate and party offering the least extreme policies and who favor appropriate, workable compromise.
The bottom line: There are no shortcuts. We must engage with voters holding opposing views. Some are not ready to approach things with an open mind. But there are others who voted for extremists but are not committed to their cause. These are the voters with whom we should engage.
Minds can be changed, and party lines crossed. But only if we listen. And then, only if we can identify the common values we share that lie buried inside our differences over policy.
PART 2: We are not as divided as we think.
At times, it seems we can’t heal what divides us. Sixty-six percent of Americans believed that the political divide increased during the previous year, according to an August 2022 poll by the Economist magazine and YouGovAmerica, a respected data analytics firm. More than 40 percent believed that civil war will break out in the next 10 years. Sadly, our political differences can make it difficult to maintain relationships with friends, family, and neighbors.
Political extremism can be defeated when voters become aware of the danger. But today, many remain unaware or only dimly aware of the dangers of extremism invading formerly safe places like schools, libraries, even places of worship.
Yet there is growing evidence that we are not as divided as we think if we identify and focus on the common values and traditions we share.
Extremism tries to replace these values with a warped, distorted version. It promotes intimidation and threats of violence as examples of free speech. It rejects responsibility to the community in the name of freedom. It would replace our tradition of independence with a slavish loyalty to an authoritarian, all-knowing leader.
The 2020 presidential campaign experiment: Robb Willer is a social psychologist who directs the polarization and social change lab at Stanford University. He and co-author Jan Voelkel conducted a series of experiments during the presidential campaign leading up to the 2020 election. Their findings are relevant to Republicans and Democrats, showing that conservatives and moderates will increase their support of a Democratic Party candidate when the candidate’s campaign explains policies in terms of the common values they share.
Voelkel and Willer conducted two large-scale experiments measuring levels of support for an imagined 2020 Democratic Party candidate they named Scott Miller. They tested three sets of values: one based on conservative values, like patriotism and tradition; a second based on liberal values, like social justice and equality; and a third, a control group offering a technical emphasis on growth and employment.
When the Democratic candidate’s policies were linked to conservative values, conservatives supported the candidate by 10 to 13 points more than when the candidate pushed liberal values or the control group’s growth and employment values. Not only were conservatives more likely to vote for the candidate, but they also thought he was more likable, competent, and principled. They were also more willing to support his campaign. And, importantly, support for the imagined candidate did not decline among Democrats even when the candidate pushed conservative values instead of overtly liberal values.
These ideas work, not just for Democrats running for office, but also for moderate and conservative Republicans who seek to challenge extremists in the primaries.
The core values we share:
The tradition of independence. For generations, living in the rural West meant self-reliance. Help from the government often wasn’t available. That fostered a widespread belief that the federal government should stay out of our lives as much as possible. Of course, some might point out that federal programs like rural electrification transformed the west. But side by side with federal aid, the belief in self-sufficiency and neighbor helping neighbor became part of our DNA. But now, the desire for independence collides with extremists who want to use the powers of government to intrude into our personal relationships, our bedrooms, and our privacy in general.
Individual responsibility to our communities. For generations, we have understood that each of us has a responsibility to the communities where we live. It’s true whether we’re talking about litter, vaccinations, protecting our public lands, or respecting the rights of neighbors. But extremists think “freedom” means they can do whatever they please, regardless of the harm it causes to others and the sense of community.
We have a long tradition of cooperation. Most of us know that some give and take is necessary in order to make things better — the horse-trading we’ve been doing for generations. But extremism rules out compromise and finding workable solutions. Extremists imagine that considering both sides is a weakness and a waste of time.
If we refocus on our core values, we can overcome extremist politicians and make progress on many issues, including climate change, inadequate health care, government intrusions into our personal lives, economic development, and turmoil on our public lands. Let’s do it together.
Next: The most important – and difficult – step to overcome extremism.
Steve Mandell is a politically independent researcher and writer living in Montrose, Colorado. Please direct comments or questions about this series to SteveM81401@gmail.com
By Steve Mandell | Special to the Herald Times
