I once held an out-of-the-ordinary job many of you probably don’t know about. 

Once upon a time, I completed a midlife crisis master’s degree in peace and justice studies. My focus was conflict resolution. 

And the conflict that captured my heart was the political divide in the United States. In my coursework, I had learned the dangers of dehumanizing others; an essential ingredient in starting civil wars. We called it “creating enemy images.” Basically, if you hear another group, for example, labeled cockroaches—repeatedly—you eventually think of them as less than human, making it easier for you to justify harming them.

The unusual job I held occurred after the 2016 election. I had the opportunity to travel the state of Minnesota to train activists in the art of good messaging skills along with my fellow workshop leader, George Greene.

Keep in mind, I was an independent voter, making me an excellent translator between the liberal and conservative sensitivities in how they received messaging.

In one exercise, I played a political campaign ad from the 1980s for the attendees. 

“Count how many times the American flag is used in the ad.” Hint: many. 

My lesson was that neither side owns the flag. All of us can celebrate our flag as a symbol of national pride.

Another lesson I taught was how to better tell your story before diving into the facts and logic of why you are “right.”

For example, you might want to share a story about your mother’s battle with cancer (first), which brought you to supporting a certain piece of legislation. That way, no matter what the other person’s rebuttal is, you can always point back to the value that you care about your mother; you care about others suffering through the same situation; and that is why you believe in supporting this policy to make things better for people in the future.

Believe it or not, it was incredibly difficult for people to start with their “why.” The lesson involved digging deep into our shared values of justice, fairness, compassion, loyalty, freedom, and so forth.

Most people discovered that they shared the same values with people on the other side of politics, but each cling to different paths for obtaining results. And this is the key to depolarization. 

I never felt I was rallying for one side or the other when I taught these things. I was trying to teach the basic tenants of how to “be heard.”

I felt that if you point people toward what they already agree on (fairness, compassion, freedom), then you can have a fair competition of policy ideas on how to achieve these things. 

Begin with your values and the result will be unity and pride and a country we can all love.

Posted on: September 29, 2024, by : JulieEthan