Political polarization may be the most pressing challenge of our time. Ideological divides continue to deepen - eroding our trust in institutions, corroding public discourse, tearing friends and families apart. Where did this suddenly come from?

To explain how this happens, we can use the American flag - a symbol to unify us. Remember the Pledge of Allegiance? In it are words of unity.. like, “One nation”, and “Indivisible”.

However, In the last 10 years we have seen the flag deliberately altered with political slogans across it and semiautomatic rifles crossed on it… even a figure in Rambo attire holding guns. This deliberate alteration made a unifying symbol for all Americans into a defiant symbol for a certain segment of America.

Suddenly we are in two camps. The conservatives see this as their freedom of expression for defiance, and to the liberals it is a clear desecration of the flag. Those in the liberal and centrist side are met by their defiant opposition who claim that it is their freedom of speech. Then suddenly conservatives make burning this flag is an arrest-able offense and that idea of freedom of expression quickly turns into control - further eroding the very principals of democracy they used once as a safeguard.

This is polarization. At its core is the idea of an ‘Us versus Them’ mentality. One side views those that oppose those altered flags as not just wrong, but morally inferior, while the other side sees them as dangerous and a violation. This tribalism leads to cynicism and conflict in which compromise is nearly impossible because of baked in deep beliefs.

Erasing polarization does not mean dispelling our differences. It means engaging with the other side constructively and re-humanizing the rest of Americans who do not see things your way. It means that we all must recognize that listening just to what we want to hear does little to move our country forwards and leads to radicalism.

Community forums where everyone listens with curiosity and a dialog that easily brings each other into understanding seems to bridge the divide. Each side in the flag controversy can understand what it means to lose loved ones who were in the armed forces under that symbol.

Making sure everyone hears the same news is key. We have all listened to one news station and it’s interpretation of a story such as ‘the flag controversy’ and then turned the dial to another, and end up wondering if it is even the same flag they are both discussing because of the discrepancies. I would love to do an experiment where my staunchly conservative brother swapped his news with my far left sister. They could write what they learned in daily journals. After a week or two we could do an interview to see how they viewed the world differently and insights into what each person discovered.

Redirecting misinformation is a must. We can all do this easily. We are all tired of getting riled up about this aspect of the culture wars… and then days later, we get all riled up about another aspect. If you look into it, there is a massive well-funded industry under the surface in multiple roles influencing and redirecting what goes viral. We have the power to stop it all. It is called pressing the off button. -Yes that is right- If we all turned off the radio when we started feeling anger rise inside, it would help our health. If we all turned off the news or switched stations when we felt them creating fear, we could listen more effectively. If , when we feel hate towards another, we all turned off our social media for a day or even a week …. maybe the algorithms would change and we could once again see the world as it is. Certainly we would be at peace with ourselves and each other a bit more. In the case of division, the off button is a powerful force and it REALLY isn’t that hard.

As Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand”. We need to be builders of bridges and not barriers.