海角大神

America鈥檚 polarity is achieving remarkable intensity, noted in many news stories, now vividly being reported at the current national political party conventions. 聽That said, overlooked by the media, there are not one but two kinds of polarization: constructive and destructive.

The media are fixated on the destructive.

They overlook the positive power of polarization.

Don鈥檛 fall for it.

Political parties emerged immediately after the retirement of President Washington. It was an organic and healthy development. As MoveOn co-founder Joan Blades and I wrote last year in The Huffington Post, President Washington, in his farewell statement, warned of negative polarization:

鈥淗orrid enormities,鈥� reportedly, are what is happening today. As reported by Shane Goldmacher and Annie Karni in Politico in Trump, Clinton run on opposite sides of a fractured America:

Peering more deeply there is George Saunders, in an astonishingly great article in The New Yorker, Who Are All These Trump Supporters:

Saunders conducted some in depth conversations with many rank-and-file Trump supporters.

Too dreamy? Let us peer more deeply still.

Polarization can be sublime. Constructive polarization means that the political parties (and conservative vs. progressives) must seek to compete 鈥� hard 鈥� over who can provide the best plan to improve the general welfare.

I am scored as far right as their meter reads by the fascinating website AllSides.com, dedicated to featuring, well, all sides. I was called by a Washington Post Magazine columnist earlier this year as 鈥渢he second most conservative man in the world.鈥�

And I love my left wing adversaries. Spitting in each another鈥檚 faces is not polarization. It鈥檚 a personal foul. The positive power of polarization is honest competition with true respect for our adversaries.

The iconic radical Saul Alinsky 鈥� who fundamentally reshaped politics, a transformation that is still a work in progress 鈥� wrote in Rules for Radicals:

Alinsky鈥檚 eleventh, perhaps most subtle and profound, Rule:

If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside; this is based on the principle that every positive has its negative.

So, where鈥檚 the breakthrough going to come from?

There are leaders, groups and organizations across the nation that have sprung up against the destructive kind of polarization. The best ones understand the opportunity that constructive polarization provides.

Joan Blades (yes, that progressive icon, co-founder of MoveOn.org and MomsRising.org) then co-founded and I (yes, that archconservative columnist) am fully in league with Living Rooms Conversations. Rather than rally groups in tribal warfare against each other, Living Room Conversations brings people together from opposing sides of an issue for a civil, enlightening conversation that values differences.

AllSides.com, whose founder John Gable provides this column series for 海角大神, puts opposing views side-by-side to help readers gain a deeper and broader understanding of the issues and each other. It doesn鈥檛 pretend that a single solution or perspective is needed, or that the center provides 鈥� abracadabra! 鈥� the magic formula. That said, AllSides.com is designed to help the blind men 鈥� meaning, all of us 鈥� discern the real shape of the elephant (or donkey, as the case may be) in the room.

The Village Square, Voice of the People, The Bridge Alliance 鈥� just some of the many good organizations who appreciate positive differences. Deborah Devedjian, founder and chief citizens鈥� officer of The Chisel 鈥� another great organization where, fo shizzle!, her team is 鈥淐reating a More Perfect Union鈥� 鈥� likes to sign off: E pluribus unum. 鈥淔rom many, one.鈥�

Could polarization be a prelude to a renewal of 鈥淔rom many, one?鈥� You bet it could.

Discover the power of positive polarization.

Ralph Benko is a guest columnist for the All Sides series written exclusively for Politics Voices.

Ralph is a national conservative thought leader, columnist, Senior Advisor in Economics for聽The American Principles Project, editor-in-chief of聽The Supply Side Blog, and author of聽The Websters' Dictionary: how to use the Web to transform the world.