Here’s a column that first ran back in 2004. As we approach another hot-tempered election season like that one was, I thought it might be good to rerun this column.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Francis, I had a wonderful surprise. Wandering among power-outage refugees lined up for coffee in the free air-conditioning at Borders, I was delighted to spot a friend whom I thought I might never see again after she moved abroad last year.
“We moved back!” she said. “Just in time for the hurricanes!” We hugged, we laughed, we talked about families, health, books. To anyone who saw us, we appeared to have everything in common. But in fact, there’s a big difference, one we usually avoid discussing. Politically, we are opposites, each a supporter of the party that the other one…well, detests.
It doesn’t surprise me that a friendship can survive this difference, because I grew up in a home where a marriage thrived despite opposing political views. I remember my parents joking about cancelling out one another’s votes, back when I was little enough to think Dad went into that little booth after work and actually erased the vote Mom cast that morning! Their good humor about political differences has allowed them to enjoy 56 happy years so far. So I know that opposing viewpoints don’t have to undermine affection and respect.
What mystifies me, though, is how two people with so very much in common — like my friend and me, or my mom and dad — can arrive at opposing conclusions about politics in the first place. How can this be? Curious, I did some reading about the usual roots of political affiliation, and what I found out is this: we’re pretty irrational. We like to believe that we choose a party based on a rational assessment of issues and party stances, but for most of us, that’s pure fiction. Research shows that most of us are drawn, in our formative years, to the party of our parents or another influential person. Once we feel affiliated with a party, we then begin — surprise! — to agree with that party’s positions. Join first, then believe.
What’s next? From then on, most people use party affiliation as a filter, screening out information that conflicts with our positions and exaggerating news that bolsters them. And this is both parties, folks. We affiliate first, then take on the viewpoints, then make sure we don’t hear anything that makes us rethink. Not too flattering a portrait of the voting public, is it?
But it’s not too late to change in time for this big election. I think everyone should draw up issue-based criteria based on the facts, look at each candidate’s positions compared with our criteria, and make a truly rational choice. I’m not going to use this process myself, but I think it should be mandatory for my friend and everyone else who doesn’t agree with me!
Just kidding, of course. Here’s hoping we can all keep a sense of humor this election season and remember that, although we are Republicans and Democrats, we are all in this together, all God’s children, each of us just doing the best we know how.