Florida’s toxic Twitter wars are escalating, but we can still fix politics. Here’s how | Opinion

Vigorous debate, even strident disagreement, is embedded in our political system. Our nation’s founders were a visionary, brilliant but also disputatious group. But just like there is good stress and bad stress for humans, our body politic also has its limits if it is to stay healthy and survive.

The toxicity levels are dangerously high in our politics, including in Florida where, as Politico reports, nasty exchanges on Twitter keep “escalating and escalating between the right and the left.”

It’s time for an emergency intervention. If not, we all will suffer regardless of partisan preference or affiliation.

Fortunately, there is a prescription for what ails us, with two curative ingredients. The first is the under-cultivated common ground of public opinion on key issues. The second, in a profession that often draws its biggest lessons from the most recent election, is the power of demonstrating a different pathway to electoral success.

But it isn’t going to be easy or certain.

Incentives for conflict

The current diagnosis is not good. An increasing number of Democrats and Republicans see the other side as immoral and view them with disdain and hate. Demonstrations of mutual affection between the nation’s top political adversaries, as seen between President Reagan and Speaker Tip O’Neill, seem inconceivable today.

This animosity is fueled by structural defects in our political system creating barriers to agreement and incentives for conflict.

Thanks in large measure to partisan redistricting (by both parties) and population shifts, the number of swing districts is in steep decline. Candidates inclined to work across the aisle and engage in respectful disagreement face strong headwinds and fear of being “primaried.”

A plethora of special interest groups and cable and social media platforms exacts a high price for deviating from a strict party line. A striking example is Sen. Ted Cruz’s pleading apology for condemning the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The coin of the realm is the provocative content that generates clicks, followers or viewers. Facebook’s own researchers documented that the company’s algorithm reinforces “misinformation, toxicity, and violent content.” Research demonstrates that Twitter rewards more emotive language and moral outrage, which is then prominently reported on by journalists.

Digital communications by political parties, candidates, and advocacy organizations further ”amplify existing resentments and anxieties” toward the other side as a tactic for fundraising and persuasion.

Don’t challenge the party

Beyond the self-interest of the next election, politicians face other powerful reasons to avoid challenging party orthodoxy, including in some cases death threats and obscenities that can follow being “called out” on social media for their acts of bipartisanship.

All of this obscures, like putrid topsoil, an encouragingly wide terrain of public agreement on critical policy and political issues that could help, as Lincoln wrote, in “maintaining the unity…of our common country.”

Polling shows sky-high agreement among Americans (ranging from 85% to 93%), on a range of issues, including on clean air and water, affordable healthcare and quality education. Another survey identified nearly 150 major policy positions on which majorities of Democrats and Republicans agree, encompassing subjects such as social security, immigration, poverty programs, energy and the environment, the federal budget, police reform, government reform and nuclear weapons

Amidst the political rancor and predictions of a democracy at risk, there is a solution hiding in plain sight.

The question of course is how to find currency in these areas of agreement.

Political imitation

Politicians are like movie studio executives. They pay close attention to the most recent success, and are not reluctant to copy it. John F. Kennedy’s skillful use of television influenced even his defeated opponent, Richard Nixon, who ran a very different (and more media-savvy) campaign in 1968. Bernie Sanders’ unexpectedly strong showing in the 2016 Democratic primaries inspired most of the Democratic candidates in 2020 to run markedly to the left. President Trump’s surprising victory in 2016 has produced countless political imitators of his pugilistic style.

So the political terrain can be transformed in one or two election cycles by candidates who win with a different approach, designed to persuade and engage rather than demonize and enrage. This is particularly true with a presidential candidate. Structural reforms such as independent redistricting commissions and open primaries can further assist in nudging candidates out of their partisan echo chambers.

We can pivot from the verbal acid-throwing that is scarring and threatening our democracy while still leaving ample ground for the battles of ideas, policy and party that are the instruments of a free society. As President Reagan said during that recognition dinner for his chief political adversary 35 years ago, we can “have it out on the issues rather than on each other.”

Shepard Nevel, born and raised in Miami, is former senior policy advisor for the U.S. Senate campaign of John Hickenlooper of Colorado. He is managing director of an environmental services company in Denver.