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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Don’t settle for political talking points

My father is a registered Republican. There, I said it. Five years ago, this didn’t bother me, but unfortunately, times have changed. As I’ve become more politically involved over the past few years, I’ve begun having conversations with my dad about the latest developments in politics.  He is not politically active, but follows major headlines and national stories. Our personal values and outlooks on life are similar, but we clash sometimes, especially when he uses stereotypes or outdated talking points instead of constructing an educated opinion. Statements such as, “Democrats are just going to spend money they don’t have,” and “Both parties are to blame for the mess we’re in,” not only make my skin crawl, but are simply not true. Regurgitating partisan political talking points doesn’t change minds; It’s a cop-out used in place of critically processing new information. If the nation’s political discourse is to improve, Americans must debunk prefabricated talking points and form their opinions based on evidence rather than political spin.

My dad is a hard-working small-business owner who always makes time for his family. Immediately after graduating from physical therapy school, he started his own physical therapy education company, while working another full-time job. Eventually, my mom joined the business and it became large enough that they both needed to work there full-time. We are a near-textbook example of the American dream –– and my father would be the first to admit it. However, despite all of his intelligence and determination, he is quick to make sweeping assumptions about political parties and candidates based on stereotypes.

One particular conversation my dad and I had about government spending quickly became heated when he dismissed my points with a sarcastic remark about Democrats’ endless spending. After a quick Google search, I pointed out that Trump plans to add over $5 trillion to the debt in his first term — an approximate 25% increase from the $20 trillion debt at the end of Obama’s last budget. I also highlighted that deficit spending took off under President Ronald Reagan, while Bill Clinton ran a surplus. He was skeptical of my challenge to his belief about Democrats, but he no longer uses this point during political conversations.

 As the partisan divide in America continues to grow, facts and data seem to carry less weight than they used to. There was an average 15-percentage-point ideological gap between left- and right-leaning Americans in 1994, according to Pew Research Center; there is now an average 36-point difference. The increasing severity of this gap is a result of Republican leadership increasingly choosing to ignore irrefutable data. Their stance is absolute truth, and if you offer a rebuttal with credible data behind it, you are simply “fake news.” Trump made 16,241 false or misleading claims during his first three years in office, according to a study from the Washington Post. As the Trump administration continues to blur the perceived line between truth and lies, it is paramount that Americans reject blind allegiance in favor of reliable data.

 I’ve made a lot of progress with my dad over the past few years, and although I don’t like to admit it, he has changed my mind on multiple occasions by sharing his perspective and personal experiences. Initially, when he made points I disagreed with, I would become irritated and begin to let myself be governed by emotion rather than reason.

On one such occasion, my dad and I were having a calm conversation about income inequality –– an issue we both believe is a huge problem in America. However, my patience was tested when he rattled off the classic “both sides are responsible for where we are today” tagline. My instinct was to laugh and ask if that was a joke. Instead, I bit my tongue, took a deep breath, and asked him why he believed that. I could tell he didn’t have concrete evidence off the top of his head; rather, it was just something he accepted as fact. I calmly told him that trickle-down economics was founded under President Reagan and has been a staple of the Republican party ever since — though economic scholars have largely debunked the theory. I then calmly backed this statement up with a policy example from the Trump administration: Republicans passed a nearly $2 trillion tax cut that was deliberately designed to provide massive cuts to millionaires, billionaires, and corporations. He paused to consider my point, and the more data I provided, the more productive our conversation became.

It is human nature to try to sort people and groups into categorical boxes. “Democrats spend too much money,” or “Republicans hate poor people,” and so on. But we can no longer allow one-liners and talking points to dominate our political discourse. Every conversation is an opportunity to replace assumptions and bias with logic and reason. Is my father going to run to town hall tomorrow and register as a Democrat? Most certainly not. But as he continues to question the universal “truths” fed to him by political pundits, he is a more responsible and engaged citizen.

Alex Giles is a member of the class of 2021.


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