Editor’s Note: This is the second article in a series on peace in America.
The Constitution was not written overnight. Throughout the course of three months of animated discussion in Philadelphia in 1787, Federalists and Anti-Federalists contested philosophies of government. And even after the Constitution was ratified, several important constitutional amendments ensured additional freedom and rights. This process required compromise and negotiations.
Part of the work of making peace involves coming together to create what President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has called “inspired solutions“. Doing so in the public square requires weighing the political gains and losses to achieve the greater good.
In this process, there will always be some deeply held moral and political convictions where commitment to politics may not be aligned with conscience. In these cases, it may be important to switch to other solutions where the compromise feels right.
But seeking inspired solutions through compromise usually means that none of the parties involved have all of their hopes or demands met; instead, they pragmatically assess what is most important to their respective causes.
Incentives matter
Contrary to popular opinion today, Latter-day Saints are regularly animated remember that no political party has a monopoly on the truth. This awareness uniquely positions this faith community to seek opportunities for understanding and bridging. The tensions and conflicts inherent in these efforts should be appreciated as a feature of our American system, rather than a flaw.
As Edmund Burke once said, “All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act, rests on compromise and barter.”
Instead of rewarding deadlocked politicians because they won’t make it across the aisle, the American public could use their votes to make partisanship a costly enterprise and practical pluralism a rewarding one.
The importance of dignity
Tami Pyfer is the director of JOIN UPthe national organization behind The dignity indexan eight-point scale to rate language for its relative level of contempt or dignity, along with its associated power to unite or divide.
Pyfer argues that granting dignity to those who disagree with us can lead to inspired solutions that we might not have imagined otherwise. During the Syrian refugee crisis, when several Republican governors refused to take in Syrian refugees, he noted that former Utah Gov. Gary Herbert was the only Republican who said “we welcome them with open arms.”
He added: “We’re a state built on religious refugees seeking refuge, and he said, ‘we’re going to take more.’
president Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ, has talked about how sometimes people may have to disagree with their own political party and do something different. Herbert’s motto was “I’m conservative in principle, I’m moderate in tone, but I’m inclusive in process,” and from the former governor, Pyfer learned to be considerate of people with whom she strongly disagreed.
In another example, Pyfer highlighted the bipartisan ad of Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and his opponent, Chris Peterson, during the last election. “Although we sit on different sides of the aisle, we are both committed to American civility and to a peaceful transition of power,” Cox said in the announcement. Stanford University researchers later found that this unique video was able to measurably reduce partisan animosity among viewers.
Although Cox and Peterson disagreed on many policies, they agreed on the fundamental importance of a peaceful transition of power and the value of freedom. Their simple act of goodwill showed common ground as an inspired solution to the lack of civility.
You don’t have to be a politician to find common ground with political opponents. When we navigate political discussions with our neighbors, we can find what common values we share even when we strongly disagree.
Cox has continued his efforts to reach across the aisle and encourage civility in political discourse. He recently launched the Disagree Better initiative, which he is pushing during his time as president of the National Governors Association. The initiative will encourage governors to shape a vision for America by finding bipartisan consensus on policy issues like immigration.
“Never convince anyone by attacking him. I actually convince them by trying to bring them in,” he told the Deseret News.
Listening for the good
Keith Allred, the executive director of the National Institute of Civil Discourse and the president of American CommonSensehe highlighted the same fundamental skill of listening as crucial to solving problems to find inspired solutions.
“Whether 10 percent of what they’re saying has merit or 90 percent has merit,” Allred said, “it’s really our responsibility to listen to other people’s points of view” for whatever goodness or truth we can find. None of this requires fully agreeing with someone’s perspective or abandoning our convictions, he said.
Allred highlighted US senators Susan Collins, Joe Manchin and Mitt Romney as good models of this in their willingness to reach across the aisle and consider solutions based on compromise. Allred’s work at CommonSense American “is a grassroots version” of these skilled leaders. Composed of 53,000 Americans across party lines working together on bipartisan solutions, this organization suggests that Americans may not be as divided as they think.
There is usually a common ground underfoot; just look for it and build on it.
