ICAR Student Opinion
President-elect Barack Obama ran victoriously on a platform of "change". Now that he's won with a clear majority, it's time the American people internalized that notion in order to transition from a polarized nation to a united one, with Obama at the helm. This race gave us time to firmly wedge ourselves—if we hadn't already—into political parties. Our most difficult obstacle now will be separating out these political party identifications from the stereotypes they evoke. We label Republicans as uneducated NASCAR fans with a beer in their hands and a rifle in their pick-up trucks and we judge Democrats to be elitist, granola-loving hippies looking for a government handout. For many of us, the connection between the identity and the stereotype is one and the same.
We've learned from our political leaders that the easiest way to remain loyal to our own identity is to dehumanize our opponent and rely on stereotypes to explain their actions instead. Senator McCain, for example, injected dehumanizing techniques into the campaign by refusing to look at his opponent and, most noticeably, referred to him as "that one" in the final debate, which only further encouraged a split in our country.
Politics is personal for much of the country. Consequently, the topic of politics has been banned from discussion in workplaces and family rooms in order to prevent relational rifts. This will have adverse ramifications on our country. By refusing to talk to each other, these stereotypes will continue to lie dormant until another government crisis or election season causes them to be stirred up once again.
At ICAR, we are taught to value communication between conflict parties. Let's take advantage of this brief cease-fire in order to promote humanization in our government systems. By creating awareness of this tendency to stereotype our opponent, students, faculty and alumni can foster local community awareness, as well as a more national consciousness.
On a community level, we must begin to promote this topic in discussion with friends, family and co-workers. Even though politics is often a personal identity issue, there are often common underlying values that shape our political views. On a national level, we must increase our academic presence in the media as a tool to promote humanization of political entities. We must capitalize on these opportunities now so that we are not left bickering and assigning blame the next time our country faces a challenging crisis that requires a bipartisan effort to solve.