Not All Competition is Healthy.

By Dayna Ghirardelli, Executive Director

The political landscape of our country has undergone a radical and exhausting transformation. What was once a system designed for robust debate and principled compromise has devolved into a bitter, high-stakes competition where the objective is no longer the betterment of the citizenry, but the absolute power of the party. In this environment, party politics isn’t just a point of disagreement; it is becoming the force that is killing our sense of community and shared purpose. 

If we examine the rhetoric emanating from our legislative and policy leaders, it is clear that we have reached a fever pitch. Instead of working to “bring down the temperature,” many in positions of power seem intent on stoking the flames. Leadership, by its very definition, should involve the calming of temperaments and the seeking of common ground. Instead, we see leaders who invoke hatred and incite division, as it is a reliable way to energize their base. This is a dangerous game. When leaders treat the “other side” as an existential threat rather than a political opponent, they give the public permission to do the same. 

The result is a society where we treat politics like a professional sports league. We have become obsessed with keeping “our team” in power, cheering for a win at the polls as if it were a championship trophy. But governing a nation is not a competition; it is a service. When we vote solely to ensure our party wins, we stop asking the most important questions: Is my quality of life improving? Are my neighbors able to feed their families? Is our local agriculture sustainable? Is our community safer? 

We have traded the metric of “quality of life” for the metric of “party dominance.” We see people voting against their own best interests simply because they cannot bear the thought of the opposing party claiming a victory. This tribalism blinds many to the reality that a win at the polls means very little if the everyday lives of the people continue to deteriorate under the weight of partisan gridlock. 

Compounding this issue is the modern illusion of knowledge. In the age of the 24-hour news cycle and social media, we are inundated with information, or at least the appearance of it. We have come to believe that we must have a loud, definitive opinion on every single issue, from complex international trade deals to local zoning disputes we barely understand. This “knowing too much” (or thinking we do) has stripped away our humility and our ability to say, “I’m not sure, let’s listen to the experts.” Instead, it seems people adopt the pre-packaged opinions of their chosen party, further insulating themselves from any perspective that might challenge the worldview. 

The emphasis has shifted entirely to the scoreboard. Undue importance is put on the polls, the seats gained, and the maps colored in red or blue, while the actual substance of our lives, our economic stability, our environmental health, and our social cohesion, deteriorate in the background. It seems many are more interested in winning the “game” of politics, and are content with losing the foundation of our society. California’s most recent Prop 50 comes to mind. 

It is time to demand more from our leaders and, therefore, ourselves. We must move away from this culture of competition and back toward a culture of unity. Unity does not mean we will always agree; in fact, healthy disagreement is a sign of a vibrant democracy. But unity does mean recognizing that we all share a common fate. Regardless of political affiliation, every resident of this county, state, and country needs a functional economy, a reliable food supply, and a safe place to live. We need to go back to the days of simple respect. Back to the days when we were taught to respect an office or a position, even in the face of disagreement. This has been utterly lost and forgotten, and the result is a false sense of entitlement.