In his farewell address after serving as the first president of the United States, George Washington famously warned the American people of the detrimental effect of political partisanship on the American experiment. He feared that a partisan political structure would enable ‘men of vice,’ especially those who are self-interested, to hijack the political system through the control of political parties while deceptively appealing to the common good. To Washington, political parties threatened to undermine the very fabric of legitimate democracy by rewarding legislators for acting in their own interest, and against the general interest of their constituency.
Today, Washington’s fears have been realized, as polarization along party lines has become a matter of course in American politics. A Pew Research Center study concluded in 2014 that 38 percent of Democrats and 43 percent of Republicans held “very unfavorable” attitudes toward their opposing parties. Further, and more alarmingly, the study also concluded that 27 percent of Democrats and 36 percent of Republicans see their opposing party as a threat to the nation’s well-being. Since the election of President Donald Trump, Pew found in 2017 that “across 10 measures that Pew Research Center has tracked on the same surveys since 1994, the average partisan gap has increased from 15 percentage points to 36 points.” It’s clear that perspectives have only become more polarized in the last few years.
Individuals with differing opinions within political discourse should not be considered personal enemies.
Aristotle, Washington’s ideological ancestor, argues in his Politics that the primary cause of regime decline and failure is factional conflict, which in turn is the result of a lack of ‘political friendship.’ Aristotle’s argument that relationships between individuals act as the foundation of politics, the laws, and the institutions that facilitate governance. Further, Aristotle outlines in his Nicomachean Ethics that societies should promote ‘political friendships’—relationships of mutual respect between individuals. By engaging in true individual friendships, all parties to the relationship grow. More and more, however, Americans have stopped pursuing relationships of mutual respect with individuals of the opposing political party. More alarmingly, politicians, between whom the establishment of virtuous relationships is most significant for maintaining the integrity of the government, have also chosen to give up on mutually respectful inter-party relationships.
America has lost the principle of political friendship. If party polarization is not improved, American democracy is at risk of slipping into inescapable decline, and perhaps even collapse. One prominent example of this phenomenon is Donald Trump Jr.’s use of Instagram to attack newly elected Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The meme, which circulated late last year, suggested that Ocasio-Cortez’s progressive economic views would result in Americans eating dogs. Such ad hominem attacks not only demonstrate a lack of respect, but also create an uncooperative atmosphere between Congress and the executive office. The chances of finding common ground on even one issue or policy consideration grows ever smaller as mutual respect disappears and the factional divide deepens.
Since personal relationships serve as the foundation of politics under Aristotle’s model, this lack of mutual respect between individuals permeates the actions and sentiments of the broader sphere of political party conduct. On January 5, 2011, in an attempt to bring about meaningful political change in an incredibly polarized and dysfunctional New York State Senate, State Senator Jeff Klein created the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC), which uniquely caucused both with Democrats and Republicans. As a result, despite a Republican controlled state Senate, he was able to achieve, through compromise, the passage of progressive legislation for New York State, such as raising the state minimum wage, implementing campaign finance reform, and curtailing stop and frisk policies, to name a few.
Despite this success, Klein was forced to disband the IDC in April 2018 as a result of mounting backlash from his own party. Some Democrats viewed his willingness to work with the Republicans of New York as counter to the best interests of the party, and even the country. Even though Democrats in New York might have supported the progressive legislation passed by Klein and the IDC, many of them could not overlook the fact that passing it would have required working with Republicans. Even his constituency, who he served in office for 13 years and who had seen the IDC’s political friendship lead directly to progressive legislation, was so captured by ‘enemy-party’ syndrome that they ousted him for working with the Republican Party. In fact, his successor in office, Alessandra Biaggi, alluded to the work of the IDC as “backroom deals and four-men in a room” before even discussing her policies. Biaggi ran her campaign first and foremost as an appeal to ‘enemy-party’ syndrome. With overwhelming support she not only defeated Klein in the Democratic primary, but also in the election (he ran under the Independence Party). She now represents the 34th District of New York, and considers her victory as “the nail in the IDC coffin.”
Perhaps her victory is also indicative of a nail being driven into the coffin of American democracy. The American political system is beginning to buckle under the effects of a lack of political friendship—‘enemy’ parties are unwilling to believe in each other to promote the common good, and thus are reluctant to work with each other. As a result, it has become increasingly more difficult to achieve any amount of compromise-oriented discourse.
So ironically, and perhaps most troublingly, the biggest obstacles to the infusion of Aristotelian political friendship into the modern political system are the very issues that the adoption of these Aristotelian ideals would address. If America is to solve these problems, the American public must attack the issue of political polarization at its Aristotelian source: The lack of mutual respect, person to person. Individuals with differing opinions within political discourse should not be considered personal enemies. Debates and discourse should be on the issues, not over who is more capable of personally insulting the other.
Those like Klein who attempt to establish meaningful political change through implementing ‘political friendship’ should be lauded, not vilified by the very constituency their work intends to help. George Washington warned us, and we did not listen. Lest we risk continuing the course of decline on which our current mentality has placed us, it is time to start to heed his words, and those of Aristotle. Once we regain respect between individuals of opposing ideologies, once we see each other as united in wanting to see the country flourish to the fullest extent possible, once my Democratic and Republican relatives finally decide it is okay to start speaking to each other again despite ideological difference—only then will the issue of polarization be solvable.
And only then will American democracy be back on its virtuous path.
Photo: Aristotle Sculpture