Let’s argue. It can help us overcome political polarization (really).
Editor’s note: Sinnott-Armstrong, author of “Think Again: How to Reason and Argue,” will speak at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh on Wednesday, Aug. 8, at 7 p.m.
“Best of Enemies,” by Osha Gray Davidson, tells an instructive story of overcoming extreme polarization. Ann Atwater was a leader in the Durham civil rights movement. C. P. Ellis was Exalted Cyclops of the local Ku Klux Klan. Yet they became close friends. How? They began by asking questions, listening to each other, and giving reasons. Atwater fought to improve housing, because she wanted her children to have better lives. Ellis opposed integration in public schools, but mainly because he wanted his children to get a good education. When each learned the other’s reasons for their positions, they could build on shared values, respect each other, and work together.
Today we still need to give and receive reasons in order to overcome political polarization. Instead of presenting arguments for their positions, however, Democrats and Republicans simply call each other stupid, ignorant, ridiculous, crazy, or evil. They think that their own view is so obvious that nothing needs to be said for it and nothing could be said against it. Compromise is disparaged as appeasement.
To move beyond this impasse, both sides need to try harder to understand their current enemies. Democrats need to ask Republicans not only what they believe but why, and Republicans need to return the favor. When they listen carefully, patiently, and charitably to their opponents, they will discover how much they have in common.
We all love liberty even while we recognize the need to restrict harmful actions, because we all also want to be safe and secure. Nobody likes taxes, but we all admit that they are necessary sometimes. We all want basic services from the government but also want it to become more efficient, effective, and fair. We all hate corruption and support the rule of law.
To uncover our shared values, the most useful questions ask for reasons of various kinds. To ask someone why they hold a belief is to ask for a reason to accept that view. To ask how something happened is to ask for a reason that explains that event. To ask why someone did or plans to do something is to ask for a reason for action.
Answers to such questions come in the form of arguments, because the point of arguments is to express reasons. To understand reasons, then, we need to learn how to analyze and construct arguments. We also need to learn how to distinguish good arguments from bad arguments so that we will not be fooled or misled by charlatans.
Good arguments sometimes bring great benefits, but they will not always succeed. Extremists on both sides have closed their minds so tight that no reason can creep in. Nonetheless, many people in the middle of the political spectrum are less rigid and sincerely want to figure out the truth about complex issues that affect their lives and our country. Good arguments which target that moderate audience can help most of us understand each other and work together.
None of this will be easy or quick, but you can start today. Honestly ask question after question, and prepare to answer question after question. Refuse to be satisfied with slogans, evasion, or silence in place of real answers. Give and demand reasons in the form of arguments. If enough of us start expecting reasons and arguments, we can change our polarized culture.
Resources are available to teach you how to appreciate and develop arguments, so try them. These tools can help you win every argument—not in the disreputable sense of beating your opponents but in the more important sense of learning about controversial issues, understanding people and reasons on both sides, and developing skills that we all need in order to talk and work together constructively for our common benefit.