Partisanship as a Personality
How are young people at the forefront of solving today’s worsening partisan polarization? We have slowly moved away from focusing on our common values and have, unfortunately, instead prescribed partisanship as the deciding factor to whether or not we choose to associate with each other. Millennials are the largest voting bloc in the 2020 election and can play a pivotal role in determining whether we worsen polarization or better it.
The challenges of polarization ultimately boil down to the Prius v. pickup theory. The theory suggests that you can make assumptions about a person’s political ideals depending on whether they drive a Prius or a pickup. We see this being used in our society now more than ever — people making assumptions and viewing that person through a narrow partisan lens. We make a conscious choice to either associate or disassociate ourselves based on party affiliation. As a result, individuals increasingly think of party ID as a personality, impacting social interactions.
The problem of polarization is not attributable to only this issue, but as we see the Millennial generation’s growing presence in state legislatures and Congress, viewing party ID as an individual’s personality has presented itself at the forefront of the topic of polarization today. Young people are presenting stronger social cues in interpersonal interactions that identify them as a member of either of the two parties. Using party affiliation as a personality trait makes the decision to associate with someone seemingly easier to make. Instead of making assumptions about the person as a whole based on their party affiliation, there needs to be a willingness to overcome partisanship and communicate with one another.
Overcoming this challenge can be difficult, but essential. A useful exercise that some state legislatures use, and is highly suggested to non-lawmakers, is a personal journey exercise. Small groups share the experiences that shaped their values and by sharing personal experiences, many will discover that we have more in common than we assumed. Millennials are being disproportionality affected by the same issues yet many unfortunately still see them as partisan issues. In order to efficiently solve these issues, there must be cooperation between both parties without boundaries that focuses on what affects Millennials as a whole rather than partisanship.
The reality of cooperation and bipartisanship is that most of the time solutions are not always ideal but the reward comes from each side walking away with something. Instead of disassociating, we should have a conversation and try to come to a consensus on a single issue, even if it may not be an ideal outcome. Consensus is key. Once we stop viewing politics through the lens of strict partisanship, we can identify opportunities for bipartisanship and cooperation to solve issues that impact our communities. We need both Democrats and Republicans to decouple policy from partisanship and personality from political parties. We need to remove partisanship from our personality and focus on our common values instead to civilly engage with one another to fight back against polarization.
By: Carter Nott
