Page 106 - Time Magazine-November 05, 2018

WE CAN’T LEARN IF should be bigger than the opinions dividing us. Or
WE DON’T LISTEN take the example of Ken Stern, the former CEO of
NPR who wrote a book, Republican Like Me, that is
a thoughtful tale about transcending political di-
BY MARGARET HOOVER
vides by getting outside our bubbles.
ParTisanshiP is noThing new. i grew uP in a The answer in both examples is that listening
household where appliances that broke had “gone takes a certain skill. The key, as I’ve also learned
Democrat” on us. My family came by it honestly. from my mixed political marriage, is listening with
Hoovers didn’t like Democrats because of Franklin a generous assumption that the other’s views are
Delano Roosevelt’s libelous partisan attacks on my informed by good intentions. Too many of our con-
great-grandfather Herbert Hoover, tethering him to versations in the media hinge on conflict delivered
the Great Depression. This personalization of hard in three-second sound bites. To function as a de-
times transformed the humanitarian hero of World mocracy we are going to need to listen in a spirit
War I into a villain of economic depravity. That rep- that presumes our political opponents are engaged
utation stuck for at least 70 years. The bitterness of in civic debate for the same reasons we are—they
the battles between conservatives and the Clintons care about the country, their communities, their
and Obamas seem tame by comparison. families and their neighbors.
Our media have always been partisan too. After The other requirement for effective listening is
all, Philip Freneau’s National Gazette, at the be- time. To effectively debate ideas and discuss com-
hest of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, at- plicated issues takes time. It’s as simple as that. The
tacked the Administration of the first American emerging popularity of long-form content—from
President, George Washington. Most newspapers podcasts to Oxford-style debates like Intelligence
in the 19th century were explicitly, even rancor- Squared—reveals that giving ideas time to air, to
ously partisan. be developed, defended and challenged is key. The
But something has changed in American today. goal isn’t to avoid contention. Some of the most
There is anger and hate and vitriol everywhere we iconic moments in American history, from the Con-
look, with people isolated in their partisan echo stitutional Convention to the Lincoln-Douglas de-
chambers. The good news is that America as a bates, revolved around polarizing arguments that
whole isn’t as deeply polarized as we may seem. It’s went to the heart of who we are as a nation. But they
a problem only for the most politically engaged of also took time. If three-hour Lincoln-Douglas-style
us. And those who make a hobby of their hyper- debates are far-fetched for our news cycle, maybe
partisanship make up an even smaller number. it’s worth reconsidering, given how little the three-
Call it the new 1%. Consider that the top-rated second sound bite has done for us.
cable-news program on Fox News’ prime time Giving our fellow citizens time to truly engage
receives 3 million viewers on a good night. In a in a constructive contest of ideas, while assuming
country of 325 million, those most engaged with best intentions, will take us a long way to mending
right-wing partisan media are just shy of 1% of the our hyperpartisan media and politics.
country’s population.
But they’re a powerful 1%, as Republican Sena- Hoover is the host of Firing Line on PBS
tor Ben Sasse of Nebraska learned when his politi-
cal base saw Sean Hannity endorse him in 2014
and then retract that endorsement when he criti-
cized President Trump three years later.
The partisan news allows this small portion of
the electorate to have disproportionate influence
on members of Congress, pulling them further to-
ward the right or left. Few people in this group are Too many of our
listening to anything outside their cocoon of com-
fortable information. conversations in the
That’s what spurred Jeanne Safer, a psycho-
therapist and couples’ counselor, to start a pod- media hinge on conflict
cast, I Love You, but I Hate Your Politics. Safer has
plenty of experience with mixed-marriage politi- delivered in three-
cal divides—a liberal New Yorker, she’s married to
longtime National Review editor Richard Brook- secondsound bites
hiser. In her view, the solution is not just to talk
but to listen, remembering that the love uniting us
58 Time November 5, 2018