I recently published a book called Engineering Unity: A Path to Resolving Political Polarization in the United States. When reading this title, you may believe that I am advocating some sort of middle ground, or I’m asking you to sacrifice your values in some way. I am not.
Stopping polarization is NOT the absence of conflict. Frankly, the way to end polarization is to engage in reasonable conflict resolution.
Let’s review how political polarization happens.
A political partisan will brag about the benefits and ignore the liabilities of their viewpoint. They will lambast those on the other side. The other side does the same thing. The only way that these two groups can avoid polarization is if they become aware of and value the benefits of their rival’s viewpoint. This does not mean that they agree with their rival. This does mean that they value their rival as having rational elements to their argument.
Conflict & Conflict Resolution
Conflict is what we call it when there is disagreement between two viewpoints. Clearly, two polarized sides disagree with each other; and are in conflict. Conflict resolution can take many different paths.
Debate: Debate is where each side promotes their side of an argument in a public setting, and diminishes the other side. An audience in a debate determines which side presents the most compelling argument. Debates yield a winner and a loser.
Compromise: In compromise, each side decides that a common direction is better than continuing to fight. Each side gives in on their position to reach a decision that is acceptable but is not everything they want.
Avoidance: Avoidance is the most common form of conflict. Avoidance involves:
blocking those you don’t agree with on social media.
not talking to family members who don’t share your views.
gossiping to like-minded friends about wacky unlike-minded friends.
voting for your political party for life.
hanging out with people who echo your views.
When you avoid conflict, you reinforce your view that you are right and the other side is wrong.
Demagoguery: Demagoguery is the second most common form of conflict in our modern day. It is exaggerating the evil of the other side’s argument. It often takes place in political campaigns, public protests, biased news media, and angry conversations with family and friends who believe differently. While it may feel good to make fun of your adversary, it is rarely helpful to resolve conflict.
Violence: Violence is an undesirable but common end to arguments that appear to have dire consequences and where each side will not yield to an amicable end. Violence leads to vandalism, bodily harm, death, and war. The only way that violence ends is in retreat by the weaker party, elimination of the weaker party, a truce to fight another time, or both parties are exhausted and separate.
Consensus: In consensus, each side sees the merit of the other side. They work to craft a solution that achieves the benefits that each side wants; and eliminate the problems identified by both sides. Consensus is difficult, but it is highly desired.
Based on these options, is it any wonder that people avoid conflict? If conflict is avoided, it is never resolved and ends with polarization. Polarization results in stalemates in congress; tribalism; and a divided country.
Reaching Consensus
The process to reach consensus goes like this:
Step 1: Intelligent Discussion
To engage in an intelligent discussion, you must believe that the other side is intelligent. Even if you think the other side is wrong, you must believe that they have a rational reason for believing the way that they do. To have an intelligent discussion, you must be informed. You must challenge your ideals and learn the facts that will be presented by the other side.
Step 2: Acknowledge & Validate
This may surprise you, but most disagreements are emotional not intellectual. In the first step, you attempt to understand the logic of the other side’s argument. In this step, you act out the emotion of the other side’s argument. You must put yourself in the place of the other person and rationalize their argument. In this step of the process, you make a statement to the other side that outlines why they feel the way they do and validate that their emotion is perfectly rational.
Step 3: Work Toward Win/Win Solutions
Both sides now understand and empathize with their opposite. It is likely that each side still favors their viewpoint, but they may now see a path toward a win/win reconciliation. A win/win solution is coming to a solution where truth reigns supreme. The final solution may look more like one side’s solution than the other. Win/win is not a compromise as much as it is a real solution to a real problem where the educated parties understand they are not losing or winning.
Consensus Building is Not Easy
As you may imagine, consensus building is not easy. In fact, most politicians and politically engaged people have given up on consensus building. They’ve devolved into the two most popular forms of conflict resolution: 1) Avoidance; and/or 2) Demagoguery. Consensus building means that the issues become more complicated and cannot be broken down into sound bites in political debates or press conferences. In fact, consensus building demands that we re-engineer our political systems to encourage problem solving. Currently, our political systems reward fighting politically polarized parties.
Engineering Unity
I mentioned at the first part of this article that I have recently published a book called Engineering Unity. This book demonstrates a consensus building process for twelve highly controversial political topics: 1) Immigration; 2) War & Military; 3) Energy & Climate Change; 4) Black Justice; 5) The Economy; 6) Gender Identity & Sexual Orientation; 7) Abortion; 8) Healthcare; 9) Gun Control; 10) Criminal Justice; 11) Education; and 12) The News Media. Each topic is described to give the reader an objective intellectual basis to understand the topic. The position of the political left, the political right, and the political center are described in a respectful manner. The reader can then make an informed decision on their own opinion so that they can engage in genuine conflict resolution through consensus building.
About the Author
Jeff Schuster is an accomplished businessman, engineer, and writer. Three of Jeff's books are attempts at helping people understand and solve political problems that are being made worse by political partisanship. His first book, Trial & Error, is a collection of 14 short stories. ReEngineering Education is a story of innovative education reform in the midst of political corruption. Engineering Unity is Jeff's most recent book published in August 2023 addressing political polarization on wedge issues that politicians use to divide us. You are welcome to join our private Facebook group called Reengineering Politics where we discuss politically polarizing topics in a civil manner.
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