Jeanne Safer and Richard Brookhiser are no strangers to disagreement. The couple has been disagreeing with each other for almost half a century. Safer is a psychoanalyst and describes herself as liberal. Brookhiser says he’s a conservative Republican and works for the National Review. The two of them say they don’t agree on “pretty much anything” politically — and there have only been a handful of times they’ve voted for the same person.
Even when they find a topic too difficult, each says they try to center their conversations in respect and a desire to build understanding.
Clinical psychologist Allison Briscoe-Smith says this kind of mutual respect is critical to engaging with difference. She co-teaches a class from Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center on Bridging Differences. And she says that without this respect, a conversation isn’t possible — and you may want to disengage.
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Polling data from SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University shows that almost half of the U.S. electorate thinks members of the opposing political party are “downright evil.” In a 2022 Pew Research Center study, growing numbers of Americans said members of the other party are dishonest, immoral and closed-minded.
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Article URL : https://www.npr.org/2024/11/19/g-s1-34919/holidays-politics-arguments-disagreements-family