We can rebuild the connective tissue that holds us together
A place to start: Let's agree that political violence and intimidation have no place in our politics
We were speaking with a top aide to a prominent Wisconsin political figure last fall - his boss is a name you all know - and he said something that stuck with us.
“I never thought a few years ago when we were doing all that policy work that I’d be spending my days focusing on saving democracy,” he said.
And yet, here we are.
We are worried about our representative republic.
We are worried because it’s being put at risk by a flood of distortions, fabrications and outright lies - lies that may be magnified this year by the increasing use of artificial intelligence in our politics.
It’s at risk from a small minority of people who believe that in, at least some cases, violence is an acceptable way to make a political argument.
About one in three Americans believe this, according to a poll conducted in 2022 of adult members of the Ipsos Knowledge Panel. That same poll found 1% would be willing to engage in violence themselves. That seems like a small number at first glance, but remember, we have more than 250 million voting age adults in the United States. That translates to an awful lot of people who seem willing to engage in violence for a political end.
This much is clear: If political violence becomes normalized on one side of our politics, it will soon become so on the other. We have seen violence emerge from both political extremes.
Which brings us to our new collaboration, the Wisconsin Alliance for Civic Trust.
WisACT is a cross-partisan network of Wisconsin citizens working to rebuild trust in our democratic processes. With support and funding of The Carter Center, we want to rebuild some of the frayed connective tissue that holds us together. WisACT is similar to citizen networks Carter has helped organize in Arizona, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and Michigan.
Our broad goal is simple: While we can disagree on many things, we should be able to agree that politics in Wisconsin should be free of violence and intimidation.
This is not to say we all have to sit around the campfire and sing songs. Healthy argument and debate helps us to get to better ideas and better policy. Partisanship is an ingrained part of our system, and it’s not inherently a bad thing. But disagreement that devolves into toxicity - into making an enemy of every political opponent - is just plain unhealthy. It corrodes democracy.
Broadly speaking, WisACT will be eyes and ears in communities across the state. We’ll promote accurate information about elections and voting (our initial focus). We’ll counter disinformation. We’ll support election workers. And we’ll ask candidates for office to live up to reasonable standards of conduct.
Moreover, our collaboration will illustrate how Americans can respect each other and work together, regardless of party. Support for honesty, fairness, and nonviolence in our democratic republic should transcend politics.
It promises to be a long political season in 2024. The temptation will be to tune it out or to return to our corners and complain bitterly about the other side. Instead, we invite you to join us and try to make our politics in Wisconsin just a little bit better. We invite you to support democratic norms and civil discourse. We invite you to respect your opponents.
Working together, we can do this, if we try.
What we’re listening to: “Win Hearts, then Minds.” This recent episode of “Hidden Brain” discusses the mistakes we often make when we try to persuade our opponents.
What we’re reading: “Differ We Must,” (Penguin Press, 2023) by Steve Inskeep. The NPR news anchor profiles President Abraham Lincoln through a series of meetings Lincoln had with people who disagreed with him. To save the union, Lincoln had to deal with people who thought differently that he did. Building on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals,” (Simon & Schuster, 2006) Inskeep writes that although Lincoln rarely changed their minds, he learned to meet people where they were and make them partners in his political goals.