The radio program was about ranked-choice voting, which meant Maine was talked up a lot.

But maybe even more often talked about were variations on the word “polarization.” To the point of exasperation, so I switched stations.

True, our politics is polarized, and to some extent so is our culture. Hard right versus hard left. College educated versus high school or less. Fundamentalist versus mainstream religionists versus agnostic/atheistic. White versus all people of color. Ad infinitum. Ad nauseum.

And it’s holding back the world’s most important nation.

According to the Pew Research Center, about 53% of people get their news from social media, and 64% percent of Americans believe those social media platforms divide us further.

Some really powerful people gain from our divisions. Mark Zuckerberg of Meta (Facebook) for one, Elon Musk of X for another. The more people click on divisive posts, the more ads they sell. Power seekers, too. Dictators — I mean presidents — Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping jump to mind.

Still, some evidence shows us not so divided as we might believe.

Christian Paz wrote on Vox last month, “Those who call themselves ‘moderates’ have tended to be a plurality of the American population since at least 1992.

“In 2022, they were roughly the same size (35%) as the segment of Americans calling themselves ‘conservative’ (36%), according to Gallup polling. Self-described ‘liberals’ trail at 26% of American adults, though that number has been trending up over the last 30 years.”

Paz goes on to quote Anthony Fowler, a professor at the University of Chicago, who said many Americans fit the term of moderate. “If you ask them on any given issue, they say, ‘I can see the arguments on both sides, and my preferred policy would be somewhere in the middle.’ There aren’t a lot of politicians that are offering those positions, but lots of voters are in that place.”

Here’s a concrete hopeful sign. On Tuesday, Bernie Moreno, who was backed by Donald Trump for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate from Ohio, got barely 50% of the vote in the primary. He ran against two moderates who, unlike Moreno, have experience in government.

To win Trump’s support, Moreno had to do what Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, did before him. Eat crow and grovel. Moreno had called Trump a “lunatic” and “maniac” and even said in 2019, “There’s no scenario in which I would support Trump.” But when he wanted Trump’s backing, he said “I wear with honor my endorsement from President Trump.”

But this isn’t really about Trump or even about his stranglehold on roughly half of his party.

Whatever the status or our polarization, the two paths to reducing it, or at least to reducing its crippling effects, come down to us. The voters. Especially to us who call ourselves moderate.

Paz, in Vox, finds two types of moderates, the “disengaged” and the “weird.” Disengaged are moderate on all issues, supporting, say, same-sex marriage but worried about teens having sex-change surgery. The “weird” are moderate only because their stances, extreme in both directions, average out to moderate. A “weird” might back sex-change surgery but oppose abortion.

Scholars who have studied polarization say that talking things through with your opponents simply won’t work. They say change must come from within our institutions, namely, Congress.

That won’t be easy. We are past the days when, say, U.S. Sen. Henry Jackson, D-Washington, could be a defense hawk — his state hosts Boeing and large military bases — and an environmental liberal. His bill became law requiring government projects clear environmental-impact reviews. Or when Sen. Everett Dirksen, R-Illinois, could round up more Republicans to vote for the civil rights acts of the 1960s than President Lyndon Johnson could round up Democrats.

Monica Guzman of Braver Angels still argues for individuals talking. She believes one-on-one and small groups have a part to play. She says we need to question our own assumptions, which leads to self-reflection. And that begins when we compare our assumptions against reality. I do something like that, having breakfast one day a week with some folks who tend to be more liberal than me and another day with folks who tend to be more conservative. I learn a lot, too.

Guzman goes on to urge individuals not to start a conversation with the idea of changing someone’s mind. Ask not why do you believe that, but ask how did you come to believe that. So, trending the poles toward the center won’t be easy. But it must be done.

That brings it back to us, the voters. Especially those who aren’t notably ideological. We must tell our representatives in Washington and Augusta to identify and split their differences. Today, I get six-tenths of what I want, you get four-tenths. Tomorrow, you get six-tenths, I get four-tenths. And to seek out and work for those who will split those difference. I know of no better way.

That’s how it’s gotta work. Only we can bring it about. It’s election year. Time to go to work.

Bob Neal has sometimes called himself liberal, sometimes called himself conservative. He now finds a sweet spot in the middle and came close to naming this column “The militant moderate.” Neal can be reached at bobneal@myfairpoint.net.

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