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OPINION | The four issues that could unite a divided America

2020-12-15T20:04:52.468Z


With Joe Biden set to inherit a divided America in January, the incoming president will face these significant challenges.


The end of the Trump era after the resounding defeat to Biden 2:52

Editor's Note:

Van Jones is a CNN anchor and CEO of REFORM Alliance, a criminal justice organization.

The opinions expressed in this comment are yours.

See more opinion on CNNE.

(CNN) -

With Joe Biden set to inherit a divided America in January, the incoming president will face considerable challenges.

All of them will be more difficult without cooperation, consensus building and compromise.

But with the far ends of both sides reluctant to come together, who will Biden be there to work with?

This week, CNN political commentators Van Jones and Alice Stewart address this in our discussion, but first, Van Jones writes our op-ed: What's next for America and unity?

Since his first speech as president-elect, Joe Biden has maintained a consistent message: He is committed to unifying the growing divisions in America.

For Americans exhausted by the chaotic rhetoric of the Donald Trump era, the sentiment is a welcome relief.

But, at a time when lack of consensus seems to be the only thing on which there is consensus, is it possible to heal?

And if so, how do we get there?

  • Electoral College vote gives Biden formal victory

Before we can find the correct solutions to our current pain, we must properly define the problem.

Across our country, accents can change and skin colors can differ, but the main problems we're seeing are the same: high rates of covid-19 incidence, an ongoing opioid crisis, high rates of poverty, and a broken criminal justice system.

In a sane society, common pain must lead to a common purpose.

And the common purpose must lead to common projects and solutions.

That kind of breakthrough is possible, but only if dedicated Americans of all political traditions join forces to confront the acute pain in our society: the virus, the addiction crisis, poverty, the broken justice system, to name a few.

If we are to repair these ideological fissures, we cannot continue to play with the current 'us versus them' dynamic.

We need to invest in an alternative.

That alternative will emerge from a solution-oriented kind of positive populism, one that puts truth above tribalism, results over rhetoric, and people over partisanship.

We need a 'bipartisanship from below' approach.

We need the kind of alliances that ordinary people discover when they approach to solve the serious and deadly problems that come to their doors.

That kind of solidarity arises, albeit conditionally, when good people help each other as neighbors, as Americans, as human beings.

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The divisions of the United States

Today's bipartisanship is different from the top-down bipartisanship of the 1990s and early 2000s, which, for many, left a bad taste in their mouths.

Both parties were overly influenced by moderates and centrists, some of whom did not have a strong ideological commitment, except to comply with the orders of their private and / or corporate donors, who contributed to the signing of NAFTA, prisons everywhere, and wars. endless.

As a result, many people of strong political conviction on both the right and the left came to mistrust anyone who spoke of "compromise" and "crossing the aisle."

And grassroots movements, from Black Lives Matter to the Tea Party, from Bernie Sandernistas to the crowd wearing MAGA (President Trump's Make America Great Again) caps, rebelled against traditional negotiators in both parties.

The resulting partisan divide has convinced much of the public that the parties can never cooperate on anything.

But that's not true.

The current bipartisanship is actually supported by strong supporters, not weak moderates.

And it's driven from below, by desperate outsiders whose communities have been defrauded and excluded for generations.

Work with the opposite

I have been quite successful working with "the other side."

Here are some key lessons I've learned on how to make this a success:

1. Common pain must lead to common purpose.

We need to pay less attention to politics above and more attention to pain below.

Pick tough problems that neither party has been able to solve.

Only the most principled people in either party will touch on those causes, so it will start with great partners.

2. Separate battlefield problems from common problems.

Some topics remain hot and divisive.

Express your differences on those issues and then move on to areas where you can do something.

You can fiercely oppose someone on a battlefield theme and still work with them on a common ground theme.

3. Cooperate!

Don't try to get other people to adopt your worldview just to work on a problem together.

I found, for example, that progressives working to fix the prison system are often motivated by empathy and a desire for racial justice.

On the other hand, conservatives often want fiscal restraint, fewer government overreaches, and a second-chance redemption for the fallen.

We have different reasons, but we want the same result.

Make it good enough.

4. Be human, stay human.

Respect that whoever is working on the other side has lofty ideals and values.

Do not make them carry the cross for the misdeeds of the worst elements of their own party.

They can't control their people any more than you can control yours.

And when disagreements arise, don't criticize people based on their set of principles.

In any case, try to summon them to a greater commitment, inviting them to better respect their own principles.

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    Is something that could happen

There are at least four areas in which Americans could make progress.

Covid vaccine

While there is no doubt that the virus itself has become politicized, the distribution of the vaccine offers an opportunity to rebuild faith in institutions and government.

Although there is still much work to be done, public confidence in the vaccine is increasing.

By activating a well-organized grassroots and national distribution and messaging strategy, there is an opportunity to rebuild trust and show the value of government and health institutions.

Addiction

When the face of addiction was black, our government viewed addiction as a crime, not a disease.

More than 30 years ago, the United States shamefully filled its jails with black youth in response to the "crack epidemic."

Today, as the death toll has risen in whiter parts of the industrial heartland and Appalachia, the public rhetoric has been more understanding.

But progress has been too slow.

There remains great wisdom in urban America about how to respond compassionately and effectively to people trapped by drugs.

Sadly, many rural white leaders have not yet had the good sense (or national contacts) to ask the black community for help.

And black, brown, and urban leaders haven't had the heart (or bandwidth) to deliver it yet.

But a rural-urban alliance to tackle the addiction crisis would have great appeal and power.

Mental health

There is a homicide crisis in urban America, and too many Blacks and Latinos have attended too many funerals and buried too many sons and daughters.

Meanwhile, there is a suicidal crisis in rural America.

And many of our veterans, abandoned after a generation of war, face post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other diagnoses without the support they need.

These veterans are likely to come from downtown Detroit as well as rural Georgia.

This trauma needs treatment on a large scale, and a stronger blue-red alliance [of both parties] is expected to form.

Intergenerational poverty

Finally, there is intergenerational poverty, from the Appalachians to the urban centers.

The truth is, there is no liberal-only or conservative-only solution to entrenched poverty.

Low-income communities need government intervention through a combination of well-designed social programs, tax credits, and opportunity zones (which offer tax incentives to invest in low-income communities).

But to benefit from these measures and be successful, a person also needs the traditional values ​​of hard work, sobriety, and frugality, virtues often highlighted by conservatives.

Real solutions require both social and personal responsibility.

We need each other.

To lift up those whom Jesus called "the least of these," we don't have to convert or annihilate one another.

Liberals can remain liberal;

Conservatives can remain conservative.

Liberals fight for social justice, while conservatives fight for freedom.

Both traditions are necessary for America to have freedom and justice for all.

To end the fight for food at the top of our political parties, we need strong supporters at the grassroots who work together.

Bottom-up bipartisanship can solve the problems that top-down bipartisanship created.

Common grief at the grassroots level can lead to common purpose, common ground, and common sense solutions.

Now more than ever.

Joe biden

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2020-12-15

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