The Great Divide
Finding Common Ground in Divisive Times
Introduction by Krista Martinelli, Illustration by Rollin McGrail
About a month ago, I had a conversation with a family member about how polarized our politics seem. But she corrected me in showing me that when it comes to policy ideas, there is much more common ground than one would expect. I started to think about the many friends I’ve talked with who are truly a mix, for example conservative economically and liberal on social issues.
I found that today 51% of Americans would classify themselves as Independent. See chart below.
So, I set out to hear some real viewpoints and get a further understanding of how people felt. I wanted to interview three people who “leaned to the left” and three who “leaned to the right.” I also found out that there’s a lot of fear when it comes to discussing political views right now. So, after a few failed attempts at holding interviews, I decided to make the interviews anonymous. So the names have been changed throughout.
While some of the questions do highlight the differences among our interviewees (like how they feel about the January 6th Insurrection), others are more aimed at finding common ground. I like Virginia’s answer to my place of common ground question. She says, “I think fundamentally everyone wants what is best for their families. We want safe schools and educated children and the ability to grow old with dignity.” It’s true. Doesn’t everyone want these things?
So, polls show that the vast majority of Americans, whether they live in “red” states or “blue” states all want the same things when polled on 388 questions of public policy. Nearly 70% of the results show no statistical differences. Thus, I think we have a lot more common ground than we have been recently led to believe.
Here are the stories from six local people, all living in or around Wellington, FL. Thanks to each one of them for their candid responses.
Note: In the interest of fairly presenting the views of those interviewed in their own voices, their views have been included in this article verbatim, as they stated them.