This summer my daughter and I had the privilege of running the entire Grand Canyon of the Colorado from Lake Powell to Lake Mead. There were thirty people on our two rafts, many from states like Texas and Oklahoma. We were looking forward to evening campsite conversations with citizens holding political convictions different from our own.
The conversations never happened. A few offhand remarks quickly made it clear who thought the presidential election of 2020 had been stolen and who believed it had a legitimate winner and loser. By tacit agreement any discussion of religion or politics became a threat to the relaxed vibe of the river experience. And so we lost an opportunity for dialogue across our political divide, in the perfect setting of a national park owned in common by all citizens—improbably high cliffs of rosy stone, two hundred dizzying rapids, and the Milky Way sprinkled across the blackness of the night sky.
The sour mutual contempt poisoning our national media has shed a lot of heat but not much light. The easiest way to monetize the airwaves seems to be a variation on the old “if it bleeds it leads”: if there’s hating, high ratings.
Some of our differences are real and deep—equality and accountability under the law come to mind, or what truths are self-evident, or abortion, though even that complex issue has been used by demagogues to stir up potential voters.
Other issues seem downright manufactured: are teachers really bent upon “grooming” children or making them feel guilty about our difficult history of racism? Mr. LePage was absolutely right when he said that teachers should teach children how to think and not what to think—99.9% of teachers in Maine or anywhere else would surely agree.
Whatever our differences, mutual contempt will not help us resolve them. It’s only a short few steps down from that contempt to something infinitely more dangerous: dehumanization, where we assume that the only solution to our conflicts is to eliminate the opposition outright. History has shown us the black hole that lies down that road.
No Republican or Democrat is less than fully human. In America or in Lincoln County, we will only prosper together. Conflicts between values can only be resolved by never-ending reasoned debate.
A typical conflict between two positive values which is both local and national involves preserving the commons on the one hand and keeping the tax base robust on the other. At one extreme land is removed from the tax rolls to the point where community necessities like schools can become insupportable. At the other extreme we could lose the precious commons that is one of the primary reasons we choose to live here. There is no clear resolution, only ongoing attempts at balance.
What gets lost in reflexive contempt for those with whom we disagree is the value of really listening to opposing points of view, which can lead to more inclusive solutions. Dialogue between those who disagree, like democracy itself, is worth the risk and hard work to keep it going and keep it civil. The civil resolution of conflict is just as foundational to a working democracy as the vote. We are seeing the alternatives in Russia, Iran, Myanmar and far too many other places. They aren’t pretty.
We may not be as far apart as we think. Using a model tested by Chloe Maxmin, we knocked on doors of Republicans in our town and simply listened to people’s concerns. Even if we heard things with which we deeply disagreed, we were always treated with friendly good will.
But it also sometimes seems as if politics occupies far too much of our mental landscape. Even before the mid-terms, we are already deep in into the presidential sweepstakes of 2024.
As the threat of Covid diminishes, perhaps there will be opportunities in Lincoln County not only for conversations across party lines, but even robust civil debate. Maybe we should care less about who might “win” such encounters and more about how they could strengthen the bonds of community as we get to know one another post-Covid and, hopefully, post-polarization. Imagine a chicken barbeque or lobster bake where Democrats and Republicans met together in celebration of civic engagement and the privilege of living in such a beautiful corner of our small planet.
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