American discourse on difficult issues these days is truly complicated. It's not good enough to simply know where other people stand in a debate on the concerns of the day. The lines have blurred along traditional boundaries. Knowing someone is a liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican doesn't actually tell you what you need to know all of the time. I look at people's perspectives based on scoreboards and dashboards. I've been trying to come up with some metaphorical way to look at our complicated social/political landscape. This is the best I can come up with. Sounds crazy, but hear me out.
Dashboard people look at our social and political landscape in way that shows caution to the things that may be going wrong. They pay attention to the warning lights that come on. They respond using their own understanding of that thing. The gas warning light is an easy one. The low tire pressure light is an easy one. But when the check engine light comes on, they know it might be serious. I know many of us ignore some of these until things breakdown, but at that point we are all willing to take the car to a mechanic. The short of it is that we want a machine that runs well and that is dependable. If you compare this to politics or social strife, these people want resolve and for everything to be done fairly. For the good of the whole country, they pay attention to things like racism, civil rights, election reform, the economy and any other issue that might jeopardize or hurt our nation. This approach takes a lot of work. To make one light go off, you may need to address other lights that come on. Regardless, you look for ways that the whole system can run smoothly.
Other people are scoreboard types. These people often deal in absolutes and have a win/lose mentality. The question is not often how do we help, but how can we win. We are a sports loving culture. We love it when our team is winning and accept the win even if it comes in a sloppy manner. Look at this scoreboard. The home team is winning, but only a couple are doing the scoring compared to the visiting team that has a more balanced scoring result. We just want our team to win and just like real sports life, we will make the people doing the scoring superstars. In the social political landscape, these people will seek to make the ability to win the issue and not elevate the actual issue. They will see a win as a validation of their position.
I'm not calling anyone out, but I do offer a word of caution. Know your audience. Which of these people are you talking to? If the new COVID relief package is the issue, listen for what is important most. Is it the number of programs it serves or the number of votes it got and from whom? If you are still brave enough these days to debate the issues, you may be better served debating within their perspective. It may save a friendship and show some respect.
