Given this blog’s effort to bring together voices and experts with different points of view, I thought that the Washington Post article by Shankar Vedantam, “Why Everyone You Know Thinks the Same as You,” (Monday, October 15) offers a challenge to us by saying how we are drawn to groups that think more like us than we may want to admit – even in non-political environments.

Do people reading this blog have friends who are politically different?

As a new election day looms, this question is important.  The power structure in Congress could well shift.  It may already be changing from red to blue in Kansas.

The idea of this blog is that we don’t all think alike.  And big issues require working together – North Korea and Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan – for example.  But we’re fighting the odds. The article points out:

“Studies show that most people interested in politics associate nearly exclusively with others who have similar political beliefs. In fact, research by sociologist David Knoke at the University of Minnesota shows that if you know whether a person’s friends are Republicans, Democrats or independents, you can predict with near certainty that person’s political views.”

Seems the researchers think this gap is dangerous, and not just because it dims bipartisanship: “In politics, for example, the fact that people rarely have friends with different views makes it difficult to seek common ground or to examine one’s positions closely.”

When I worked in the House, I learned early that nothing moved legislatively without coalitions, and the odder and more bipartisan the better.  I sat in on New York delegation meetings, where the members – some of the greatest personalities in the Congress – argued loudly but came out with a common agenda. One Senate staffer and I became good friends after mutual questions about NY defense  contractors’ (sometimes crazy) ideas led to earnest, long-winded debates about deterrence theory, the Soviet threat, and good government, even though our bosses were political opposites.  We got a lot of work done.

One of my Congressional bosses did wonderful coalition building in the House gym, a break from more political spaces.  After one workout, he came back with a cosponsor for one of his more audacious anti-pork efforts – that of a young Republican maverick who went on to chair a major committee.  (I think we won the floor amendment as well.)

I think the key is trust.  If we don’t know and trust those with whom we disagree, it makes it much harder to take their arguments seriously or work together.  Sure, we are all drawn to those who think like us, and, care about similar goals.  We should fight for what we believe in.  But the issues we face today require collaboration and more trust across many aisles, in Congress and at the Y, if bipartisanship is to survive.     

Related posts:

1. Drilling Our Way to a Climate Change Solution?
2. PSA Welcomes its New Class of Congressional Fellows
3. Bipartisanship still alive despite the health care debate
4. Thomas Kean: How 12/25 Was Like 9/11
5. Politico: Bipolar on Bipartisanship?