Whether youre celebrating this week’s midterm elections or sniffling into your morning coffee, I have some good news.
And no, it has nothing to do with which party won.
For years, weve been told that America is hopelessly divided. That our politics are tribal. That our opinions are fixed, our loyalties inherited, and our minds about as open as a bank on Christmas.
AMERICA SAW THE BLUE WAVE COMING â BUT DRASTICALLY UNDERESTIMATED THE EXTENT OF THE DEM TSUNAMI
Democrats vote for Democrats. Republicans vote for Republicans. Independents insist theyre independent while somehow managing to vote for the same party every November.
Persuasion? Forget it.
Why bother making an argument when everyone has already made up their mind?
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Well, guess what?
They havent.
And that may be the most encouraging thing to come out of this election.
Im a researcher and strategist. I spend my life studying what people believe, why they believe it, and what, if anything, might change their minds. I even wrote a book called” Persuasion,” which lately has been beginning to sound like a work of historical fiction.
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But Ill admit something. Watching our politics harden over the past decade, even I began to wonder just how persuadable America really was.
We seemed to have reached a point where facts were filtered through party affiliation, arguments were judged by who made them, and changing your mind was treated less like intellectual growth and more like treason.
Weve stopped debating and started diagnosing. Anyone who disagrees with us must be stupid, evil, brainwashed, or watching the wrong cable news channel.
Then voters did something wonderfully inconvenient.
They reminded us that they are human beings, not permanent members of political teams.
Look at Michigan. Look at Texas. Look at Kansas.
EVERYONE IS WATCHING TEXAS AND MICHIGAN. AS A POLLSTER, I KNOW WHERE THE REAL STORY IS
Different states. Different political traditions. Different electorates. But each offers a reason to question the assumption that political identity is destiny.
Candidates can still reach people who werent necessarily inclined to listen. An argument can still break through. A message that speaks to something voters genuinely care about can still make them reconsider what they thought they knew.
Of course, an election result alone doesnt tell us precisely how many voters changed their minds and how many different voters simply showed up. As a researcher, I feel compelled to point that out, even at the risk of ruining a perfectly good argument.
But the larger lesson remains.
INDEPENDENT VOTERS ARENT PICKING A POLITICAL TEAM, THEY JUST FEEL PICKED ON
Political coalitions are not permanent. And voters are not property.
Thats not a flaw in democracy. Thats democracy working.<
