Routt County GOP: We need to work through our divisions with a robust, honest exchange of ideas

Routt County Republicans – June 28, 2022

Americans have a rich history of working together to achieve common goals, and current challenges require that we reinvigorate that spirit of cooperation.

Our First Amendment recognizes a citizen’s natural right of free expression because our founders understood a robust exchange of ideas is essential for the development of effective public policy and a stable society.

Unfortunately, many in America today seem to think that disagreement in policy preferences is bad, and feel the point of debate is to get the other person to agree with their ideas. This has resulted in political debate taking an almost religious tone as one speaker expects to convert the other to their way of thinking.

Rather than act as policy missionaries, seeking either validation or conversion from others, we should accept these exchanges as an honest attempt to understand each other.

One of the ways that we demonstrate respect for each other is to understand we are all unique individuals, with different values, priorities and experiences. Just as no two faces are the same, no two minds are the same. Nobody has a monopoly on good ideas and only through welcoming ideas from all perspectives can we reach the best solutions.

The current environment of political and social division is hampering communities from working together as successfully as past generations.

In many cases, independents have developed a bias toward our two-party system, while Republicans and Democrats have developed a bias toward each other. When we allow our bias to interfere with listening to understand, and we’re trying to convert others instead of understanding each other, the division and predictable poor results will persist.

Locally, our challenges are significant and necessarily require that we embrace the efficiencies that are only possible through working together in good faith.

As we move forward to address our local challenges on matters such as school security, housing, and regional transportation let’s put effort into setting our biases aside and considering all ideas. Only by working together in an inclusive model that respects everyone’s ideas can we meet the challenges ahead.

Reasonable people can disagree on all sorts of ideas and still interact in good faith to find areas of agreement and achieve solutions that reflect the best of our collective thinking. The Routt County Republicans look forward to a robust exchange of ideas and working together to address our challenges. We invite everyone to join the discussion!

PUBLISHED SOURCE: Steamboat Pilot & Today