Some believe electing a fringe candidate will benefit this nation. I believe just the opposite.
Imagine a world in which Bernie Sanders, such a fringe candidate, were inaugurated.
Sanders would give a rousing speech to a standing-room-only crowd on the National Mall to optimistic cheers.
But many in Congress would refuse to work alongside such a radical, self-proclaimed socialist.
A Trump administration would yield something similar. The legislative branch would rather brag about stopping Donald Trump’s agenda than searching for common ground.
If you want to see gridlock get even worse, cast your vote for either candidate. Barring an unconstitutional power grab, each man would likely accomplish very little as president.
Both the Sanders and Trump campaigns are shaping American politics like a pounding rainstorm carving the Grand Canyon. I only hope they don’t polarize Americans further.
After all, we don’t need fringe ideologies or vitriol. We need cooperation.
Cooperation is the fuel that drives progress. If you look back to the ‘90s, you’ll find an era in which the U.S. GDP grew consistently, the national debt dropped temporarily, and optimism was on the upswing.
Today, conservatives credit Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and the Republican-dominated Congress for the successes of the ’90s. On the other hand, liberals praise the Democrat who was in the Oval Office, Bill Clinton.
It doesn’t matter who deserves the credit. What matters is that the two sides compromised. Throughout the ’90s, Congress and the president established a working relationship with respect for one another. They hammered out bipartisan deals that appealed to most Americans.
Sadly, this kind of cooperation is absent from the today’s political discourse.
We shouldn’t only blame Washington, D.C. either. Those who loathe compromises aren’t only politicians, but friends and neighbors.
Technology has entrenched every slice of the political spectrum. Numerous webpages shelter members from contradictory opinions, and entire social media groups spend their time deriding political foes.
We can’t expect progress when we refuse to respect opposing viewpoints.
Former presidential candidate Jim Webb, mocked for his moderate stances, tried to elevate the dialogue by saying, “The other party is not the enemy; they are the opposition. In our democracy we are lucky to have an opposition, to have honest debate.”
This debate won’t happen if we hide from other opinions, and it won’t be honest if it is poisoned by name-calling. Artillery barrages of memes that label Republicans “homophobic” or Democrats “communist” are hardly less destructive than actual artillery.
If we want our leaders to return to results-oriented compromises, we first need to defuse the political tension in our everyday lives. The solution isn’t supporting fringe candidates — respect is.
Cooperation doesn’t start with an election. It starts with us.
