Pardon this brief interruption in society’s regularly scheduled program of partisan bickering, outrage, careful side-stepping and painting the “other side” as evil!#?@.
It has been brought to our attention that efforts to listen, understand and respect a person with another viewpoint has gripped a young couple in love. This comes almost one year after two elected officials with different viewpoints carried on a 2-day online town hall from a rented vehicle.
What is this new trend!?
For starters, this short video shows a REPUBLICAN lawmaker marrying a DEMOCRAT lawmaker. If you are trendy enough to watch it, you will encounter intriguing statements along the lines of:
‘We have so much in common, despite being from different political parties.’
‘We both got into public service because we wanted to help people and give back to our communities.’
‘While we often have to agree to disagree – there is so much more that unites us than divides us.’
Shocking? There is more. Congressmen Will Hurd (R-TX) and Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) took a 1,600 mile road trip where statements like these emerged:
“‘We hit a lot of issues,’ Hurd said as the two approached Washington, ‘We came to some agreement. We learned about other issues we’re going to be able to work on. I should spend more time with my colleagues — I learned that from this trip,’ O’Rourke told the crowd that had been waiting for him and Hurd. ‘This is a guy I can work with.’” Now other lawmakers want in on the trend. (Texas Tribune)
To make historical sense of this new trend of bipartisan listening, let’s turn to Bret Stephens’ NYTimes OpEd entitled: The Dying Art of Disagreement. Stephens urges us to “do more than hoarsen our voices when we debate,” and implores us to engage in debates “to sharpen our thinking.”
“Socrates quarrels with Homer. Aristotle quarrels with Plato. Locke quarrels with Hobbes and Rousseau quarrels with them both. Nietzsche quarrels with everyone. Wittgenstein quarrels with himself.
“These quarrels are never personal..
“Most importantly, they are never based on a misunderstanding. On the contrary, the disagreements arise from perfect comprehension; from having chewed over the ideas of your intellectual opponent so thoroughly that you can properly spit them out.
“In other words, to disagree well you must first understand well. You have to read deeply, listen carefully, watch closely.
“You need to grant your adversary moral respect; give him the intellectual benefit of doubt; have sympathy for his motives and participate empathically with his line of reasoning. And you need to allow for the possibility that you might yet be persuaded of what he has to say.”
Sounds like good advice for both healthy relationships and healthy dialogue.
So let’s raise a glass to the newlyweds and say “cheers” to more productive interactions with the people with whom we disagree.
For more on how to join in, check out The Policy Circle Civic Engagement Brief. In the brief you’ll find a Ted Talk by Citizen University founder Eric Lui on how to make civic engagement “sexy again.” It is also an election year, so check out ballotpedia for the upcoming primaries and elections in your area and keep an eye out for ‘election year’ posts from The Policy Circle!
What Still Matters is provided by Kristin Jackson, who serves as policy editor for The Policy Circle. Kristin is a middle-of-America native with a decade of experience working on policy in our nation’s capital.
The Policy Circle is a 501(c)3 that provides a fact-based, nonpartisan framework that inspires women living in the same community to connect, learn about and discuss public policies that impact their lives. Women across the nation are taking a leadership role in public policy dialogue on what human creativity can accomplish in a free market economy.