What if the way to break through our polarized politics was to reward those willing to cross the partisan divide for the greater good?
America is mired in a dysfunctional stew of hyper-partisanship. Too many view members of the opposing political party as enemies and not fellow Americans. Not to mention this environment can make it difficult to govern. A multitude of books have been written about how we ended up this way. Some of those books have even offered suggestions on how we can move beyond this hyper-partisan doom loop.
In her book “Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity,” Lilliana Mason writes that it was not that long ago that the two parties were demographically and ideologically hard to tell apart. It feels as if those days are long gone. Americans’ social identities have grown increasingly linked with their political party as has their dislike for the opposition. A 2016 Pew Research survey found that for the first time in more than 20 years, majorities of Democrats and Republicans held very unfavorable views of their partisan opponents. I imagine that number has only grown since 2016.
