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** How the United States Can Step Back from the Brink
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This week, Humanity United’s John Paul Lederach and Melanie Greenberg wrote a blog ([link removed]) highlighting the escalating political polarization in the United States. In this important piece, they outline the troubling warning signs for conflict in the United States and offer practical examples from peacebuilding around the world for how to bridge polarized divides and mitigate violence. An excerpt of their blog is below.
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As the 2020 election draws near in the United States, recent events point to how our polarized political process now runs the risk of spiraling into violence. Within the past week, Homeland Security listed white supremacist groups as the “most persistent and lethal” threat to security, members of a domestic militia trained in combat weapons were arrested for a plan to kidnap a governor for what they deemed as crimes against the constitution, and ambiguous messages came from President Trump about assuring a smooth election transition and about renouncing white supremacist groups. Further, recent research ([link removed]) has found that one in five partisans believe violence would be at least “a little” justified if the other party won the 2020 presidential election while one in ten says there would be “a lot” or “a great deal” of justification for violence.
For most Americans, it’s unconscionable that violence could be an acceptable byproduct of our increasingly polarized political system. While this trend may seem shocking in a U.S. context, countries where polarization has spiraled from dehumanization into armed conflict know this pattern all too well. When open violence begins to mix with politics, we must commit to stepping back from the brink and move into disciplined action. Valuable lessons have emerged from peacebuilders around the world who have de-escalated tensions, rehumanized adversaries, and forged the social healing necessary to reclaim a commitment to politics without violence. But this takes leadership from all levels.
It starts with understanding the impact of rampant polarization on our society. Our public discourse and political disagreement in the United States currently face a toxic mix of ever deepening social polarization, and increased levels of politically driven fear and hate messages. Since the declaration of the COVID-19 national emergency, the past seven months have seen gun sales hold at a nearly 70% increase over last year. These factors render our election and post-election environment vulnerable to identity-based violence.
But there is hope.
The core task of peacebuilding will require the social courage to imagine and create alternatives that make violence unimaginable.
It is incumbent on all of us to move beyond the dehumanization in our politics and to make our voices heard that violence will not be tolerated.
Now is the time for us to embody the first three words of our constitution, we the people, allowing us to step back from the brink of violence and into the wholeness that lies at our nation’s deepest core values.
Read the full blog here ([link removed])
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