Step away from the noise of social media and cable news and there's a lot of common ground in Wisconsin

Spend 10 minutes on Twitter or watching the cable commentariat and you will be hard pressed to believe any commonalities exist among the Red and Blue tribes. But this media-fed belief is false, and we have the data to prove it.

The Red-Blue divide is especially pronounced in Wisconsin. Over the past two decades, Wisconsinites have engaged in vast self-sorting of their media consumption, friendships and even the communities where they decide to live. Social media has accelerated the trend toward tribalism, which covers the overlapping areas of political and cultural sentiment.

However, a truly great society cannot be a large version of the Hatfields and McCoys. Recognition of common values, historical ties and future goals is important to keep us striving together toward a better future.

This year, Public Policy Polling conducted a large survey of Wisconsin’s Democratic and Republican primary voters on a number of statements about seemingly tribal policies — from immigration and race to policing and gender identity. The good news: Wisconsinites across the political spectrum can agree in principle about even the most controversial political topics.

The crux of these statements could be summarized as: “Common sense tells us these issues are complicated and have nuance.” Unlike cable and Twitter shouters, most Wisconsinites recognize complexity, exceptions to general rules, and gray areas. The statements are drawn from an article one of us wrote here.

The first statement we polled is one that gets to the core of the American ethos. It read: “Equality of opportunity is a fundamental American principle; equality of outcome is not.” Amazingly, 66% of Wisconsin Democrats and 73% of state Republican voters agreed with this principle.

We then proposed: “America is not perfect, but it is good to be patriotic and proud of the country.” 71% of Democrats and 93% of Republicans agreed.

Next we asked: “Discrimination and racism are bad, but they are not the cause of all disparities in American society.” A clear majority, 62%, of Democrats agreed, as did 91% of Republicans.

Regarding racial bias we asked: “No one is completely without bias but calling all white people racists who benefit from white privilege and American society a white supremacist society is not right or fair.” 55% of Democrats agreed, as did 87% of Republicans.

Regarding immigration, Donald Trump’s signature issue, we asked: “America benefits from the presence of immigrants, and no immigrant — even if illegal — should be mistreated. But border security is still important, as is an enforceable system that fairly decides who can enter the country.” A large majority of Democrats (74%) and Republicans (89%) agreed.

As to the summer of 2020’s dominant issue, policing, we asked: “Police misconduct and brutality against people of any race is wrong, and we need to reform police conduct and recruitment. More and better policing is needed for public safety, and that cannot be provided by ‘defunding the police.’ ” 69% of Democrats and 91% of Republicans agreed.

Next we asked: “There are underlying differences between men and women, but discrimination on the basis of gender is wrong.” Incredibly, this statement garnered near equal support, with 91% of Republicans and 90% of Democrats agreeing.

Regarding one of the most hotly-debated cultural issues, transgender rights, we posited: “There are basically two genders, but people who want to live as a gender different from their biological sex should have that right and not be discriminated against. However, there are issues around child consent to transitioning and participation in women’s sports that are complicated and not settled.” We were heartened to see that both Democrats (65%) and Republicans (76%), agreed with this statement.

Next we asked about the statement, “Racial achievement gaps are bad and we should seek to close them. However, they are not due just to racism, and standards of high achievement should be maintained for people of all races,” with 91% of Republicans in agreement and 64% of Democrats.

Finally we asked about free speech: “Language policing has gone too far. By and large, people should be able to express their views without fear of sanction by employer, school, institution or government. Good faith should be assumed, not bad faith.” Democrats agreed by a clear majority of 61%, and Republicans were in near universal agreement at 91%.

In sum, the above shows partisan voters can agree in principle on the most controversial issues. Cumulatively, the statements were agreed to by 87.3% of Republicans and 67.7% of Democrats. And lest you think that only Wisconsinites would endorse these views in a bipartisan way, we note that the same set of statements was tested in the very liberal state of Massachusetts and generated the same basic pattern of results!

Our takeaway: if either of our political parties would strip away the noise of social media and cable opinion arsonists and speak to the common sense and common ground available to them, each would do better in electoral contests and as long-term political brands.

Apart from elected officials, we offer the following prescriptions for concerned citizens who, like us, are shocked at the tribalization of our current politics:

• Break out of your media silos — quit Twitter and turn off cable “news.” Instead, support professional journalism through paid subscriptions.

• Don’t leave nasty comments online — especially anonymous ones. Instead, make the effort to talk to your neighbors in person. It’s harder to tell someone off eye-to-eye than online. Jokes and memes are entertaining, but both sides use them as crutches to attack their opponents and destroy productive conversation.

• Embrace the idea that many things in life aren’t simple and you won’t understand everything or everyone all the time. Intellectual humility means not having to make knee-jerk decisions on every issue under the sun.

• As the data shows, issues involving race seem to be the most polarizing. Our country’s troubled history should be discussed openly and honestly. Hiding our past only exacerbates current divisions.

• And finally, regardless of your faith tradition, treat others how you’d like to be treated and assume when someone is engaging with you on a topic of public opinion that they have good intentions.

Together, we can fight back against the trend of political tribalism and create a house that stands together.

Ruy Teixeira is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and an editor of “The Liberal Patriot” blog on Substack. Dan Adams is a Wisconsin criminal defense attorney and political commentator.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Despite noise of social media, there's common ground in Wisconsin