We should be having much better fights

Does it seem to anyone else that the divisive, uber-polarized nature of today’s political climate just seems incredibly shallow? It’s like we’re never actually getting to the point of the argument, we’re just taking sides without talking about any substance. 

Take the critical issue of climate action – when is the last time you heard our government officials and industry experts having meaningful, collaborative conversations about the steps we need to take to form a sensible climate policy? What should be universally viewed as an existential threat is not getting meaningful attention because we’re stuck at the ‘positioning’ step and refuse to even talk about potential policy solutions. This needs to change!

Now, I am not so naïve as to suggest that politics has no value in discerning and debating the issues that matter most. Our political structure was designed by our forefathers to bring only the most important issues to the table for debate, and then debate them heartily.

But it’s as if we really don’t want to ever get to the actual debate, where we argue about the substance of the issue. We are so stubbornly committed to one side of an argument or another, that a Machiavellian mindset takes hold: win by any means, and be damned the issue itself. At an almost societal level, we’ve become so focused on tactics because we always have to get the upper hand, seize the power, win the argument… and the ends justify the means.

Kate Marvel, a NASA climate scientist and compelling TED Talker, has argued that climate change deniers are simply bucking the overwhelming consensus of scientists, digging in their heels in a fight more to do with politics than science. She quips, “We should be having much better fights”.

Unfortunately, we’ve become way too accustomed to this approach in politics. Positioning, power, and control of the argument too often mean more than the argument itself, and that behavior will continue to be rewarded as long as we the voters let it. 

Like Marvel, I think it’s time we started focusing more on policy solutions rather than mere politics and positioning. It’s time for substance over superficiality. We have big problems to solve, and constantly fighting for control does nothing to create the sensible and lasting policy our world so desperately needs.