Battleground or Common Ground: Our Word Picture to Choose
Clapham Principal Mark Rodgers reflects on the narratives for 2024, challenging us to consider which word picture we will choose.
“War is cruelty.” “War is a terrible thing.” “War is Hell.”
The language of politics is war. Each party has a base from which one has to attack his/her opponent to defeat them in the election. There is only one victor, and no role for the defeated. It is a zero sum game.
Politics has become identity, and in the current polarized context of just about everything, the spirit of warfare has come to dominate our society as well. Red versus Blue, victim versus oppressor, rural versus urban, left versus right, Boomer versus Millennial. Power dynamics are at play from companies to campuses. “The other” has become our enemy.
Our language has become weaponized. Our public discourse is not just coarse, but violent. The goal is to “own” each other, the other party is an existential threat to the future of America. Our public officials have taken permission to abuse each other verbally, modeling verbal hostility for our children. Veiled threats abound, on social media as well as in the subway. There are no safe harbors from social conflict.
We all know what a battleground looks like; World War I trench warfare. A no man’s land with no living things. Hand to hand combat for inches of gain or loss.
Body bags and burned out cars in Israel, shelled buildings in Gaza. Pitched battles in Ukraine with civilian bodies in the streets and weary soldiers. Burning buildings in Minneapolis and hand to hand fighting on the Capitol steps.
Scorched earth. Nothing can flourish. The most vulnerable lose, only the military-industrial complex wins. Or in the case of our social warfare, the Outrage Media prospers.
Our country has become a cultural battleground. The only remedy is to replace it with a vision for the pursuit for common ground. As Proverbs 29:18 admonishes us: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
Vision for Common Ground can be a haven in cultural hell. A space for civil conversation. Listening and learning. Sharing common concerns and exploring common causes.
We need to till the soil of common ground. This will involve foundations investing in it, politicians standing in it, talk show hosts creating a space for it, popular culture showing it, families and friends insisting on it.
When common ground is uncovered, we can plant seeds of hope that mutual flourishing is possible. The seeds are embedded in civil society, commended in most religions through the golden rule, aspirationally embraced by corporate ”belonging” efforts, and being rediscovered on campuses that are shedding their speech codes.
What we need is an uprising of the hidden tribes who want to give permission to our public officials to compromise for the common good. It is a virtue, not a vice, to sacrifice some of our rights for the good of others. We don’t need to die on every hill we stand on. Instead, we need to plant trees together that can provide shade from the heat, fruit for our health, and seeds for a forest that can eventually flourish.
Image of Rep. Andy Kim cleaning up after the riots on January 6th
In our work at Clapham, we enjoyed a refreshing oasis of our work a few weeks ago when the House passed the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act with broad bipartisan support. The bill included tax cuts for families with children and for businesses investing in our future. Opposed by some on the right and the left, the common ground prevailed and thanks to Rep. Jason Smith and Sen. Ron Wyden, a pre-negotiated common ground became, at least for now, a rare watering hole in the desert of parched partisanship. Should it be taken up by the Senate and passed by this Congress, it will plant seeds for future flourishing that we can all celebrate together.
In a hopeful article in the Washington Post, a pro-choice author, after commending pro-life organizations for weighing in on behalf of the Child Tax Credit, wrote, “there’s real cross-party support for policies to make it easier, safer and cheaper to have and raise children. With practice, such cooperation just might become a habit in Washington.” We are working with a number of pro-life colleagues on a fourth-trimester initiative that will uncover potential common ground for families with unborn and newborn children to thrive. Hopefully finding common ground like this will become a good habit for forces otherwise in opposition.
When common ground is uncovered, the most vulnerable can thrive. This is the hope of a recent cross-partisan action plan released by the Convergence Center for Policy Resolution, called the Convergence Collaborative on Supports for Working Families. This cross-partisan Collaborative consists of leaders working on policies affecting the lives of children and families in America. Specifically, the goal of the Collaborative was to develop an action plan to help low-to-moderate income families with young children flourish. This group consisted of representatives from politically diverse organizations like The Heritage Foundation and the Center for American Progress. One might ask, how were they able to agree? By uncovering common ground. The report states, “We came together knowing that we were deeply divided on policy issues and politics. To elevate the conversation, we began with the big picture question: What does it mean for families to flourish?” Developing this shared framework and shared principles then guided conversations on specific policy recommendations. The Collaborative presents a hopeful picture of cross-partisan work, reflecting the fruit that can come by uncovering common ground.
Finally, Clapham’s sister production company, MORE Productions, has been working with Bridge Entertainment Labs, a new non-profit in LA, on stories for the culture which model efforts to bridge our differences, and even uncover common ground. MORE is working with Emmy award winning writer/director/producer Erik Bork on a feature length film that we hope will model navigating political polarization in what otherwise will be a battlefield with relational casualties this year.
We are and will be suffering collective PTSD unless we replace our “warfare” word pictures with the possibility of shared flourishing. Battleground or common ground? The word picture running on a loop in our minds is the lens through which we will see the world, and is for each of us to choose.
We at Clapham choose flourishing.
