http://www.citizen-times.com/story/opinion/2017/11/25/non-partisan-communication-partisan-world/886720001/
Non-partisan communication in a partisan world
We live in an age of partisanship. We feel it at our core, and research supports our impression that Americans are more divided now than at any other time in recent memory. For example, the Pew Research Center has asked Americans the same ten political values questions seven times since 1994.
Today, there is a 36 percentage point difference between Republicans and Democrats across the ten questions, whereas in 1994, there was only a fifteen-percentage-point difference. Worse still is that the gap appears to be on an exponentially-increasing projection over time.
But this does not have to be our destiny, and I argue that this cannot be our destiny if we want to pursue anything together that will have lasting and positive effect for all.
Last week, I returned from Washington, DC, where I had traveled with five other Asheville-area residents for the semi-annual conference of Citizens’ Climate Lobby, the nonpartisan organization for which we volunteer. After one day of training, planning, and educational sessions, more than 600 citizen volunteers from around the country lobbied our members of Congress once again to enact the revenue-neutral carbon dividends proposal of CCL, which the world’s top economists agree is the most effective means for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
Before I made another such trip to Washington, DC in June 2017, I was told by a few close friends and associates that I was wasting my time, that Congress would never act on climate change, and that our elected officials would not even listen to me. I heard similar whisperings before the most recent trip. However, our data and our experiences suggest that Congress is listening to us, and that there is a chance that Congress —divided as it seems to be when we peruse the newspapers and our partisan news sources — will indeed act in a bipartisan manner to correct the nonpartisan issue of climate change. It all comes down to creating political will, that elusive notion which requires us to bridge the seemingly cavernous gap that separates us.
Bridging the gap will require some old-fashioned tools latent within each of us, such as the desire to seek first to understand the other person’s viewpoint, to listen first not for differences, but for common ground, and, most important, to enter these conversations with empathy. For CCL, interacting with our friends and neighbors and with members of Congress in this manner is slowly but surely leading to progress on the issue of climate change, which has historically divided Americans and has been the source of some serious partisanship.
CCL volunteers have had productive and respectful meetings with the offices of each member of Congress representing WNC — Representatives Mark Meadows and Patrick McHenry, and Senators Thom Tillis and Richard Burr. It certainly helps that CCL’s proposed solution to addressing climate change is a market-based system for placing a price on carbon emissions, and then returning all proceeds to Americans, rendering the proposal revenue-neutral. But it is equally important that we have entered these conversations with the staff and members of Congress themselves with the desire to seek to understand their positions and values as related to this sensitive issue. I have said in public writing before that for years I just wanted to scream and shout, “Why have you all not done anything yet to address climate change?!” But to what end would I continue to scream into the abyss? Seeking solutions to address climate change and many other big issues requires not shouting, but hard work and dedication to continued engagement with others, plus a lot of patience.
If we can engage in respectful dialogue and seek common ground, others — even those with, on the surface, completely opposing viewpoints — will likely seek that common ground with us. This “common ground communication” can begin in our homes with our loved ones, with our colleagues at work, with family and friends over the holidays, and, yes, even with members of Congress. It’s the only way forward if we are to heal the deep wound that divides us.
Michael Hill, Ph.D., teaches mathematics and environmental science at Asheville School.
