McMahon: People need to stop seeking political wins, look for common ground

 

Sharon McMahon, known as “America’s government teacher,” told Culver Academies students that Americans spend too much time focusing on where they disagree instead of working to find areas of common ground.

“That’s not how actual progress is made in the United States. Most of the things that have occurred – women gaining the right to vote, the civil rights movement, worker safety – all of these things that have become important parts of change and progress in the United States, had to happen because people worked together. And they can only work together if you find common ground,” she said during an All-School Meeting Friday at Eppley Auditorium.

McMahon, a former high school government teacher in Duluth, Minnesota, and podcaster, spoke at Culver Academies, an Indiana boarding school, on Friday as part of the Class of 1962 Student Enrichment Series in support of the school’s theme this year of “E Pluribus Unum,” seeking to encourage civil discourse by having deeper discussions on divisive ideas. McMahon has more than 1 million followers on Instagram @sharonsaysso where she seeks to fight misinformation and post nonpartisan information about democracy.

McMahon said Americans should stop thinking about how to defeat those they oppose politically, which she said has become the default position in politics, and instead think about ways to “find common ground to do the most good for the most amount of people.”

“That is who history has smiled kindly upon, the people who do the most good for the largest number of people. That does not come with defeating your fellow Americans,” she said.  

She told the students that finding common ground “doesn’t mean that you all hold hands and braid each other’s hair.”

She told the students that they might have an argument with a friend over which is better, orange chicken or taco Tuesday. But she said they could all agree that where they get their food should provide clean utensils, an adequate supply of napkins and that people shouldn’t be throwing their food on the floor or having food fights, and there should be accommodations for people with allergies and for their religious dietary restrictions.

 

 

“There is actually quite a bit of common ground even though you disagree about which is better, orange chicken or taco Tuesday,” she said. “There are a lot of areas where you could work together.”

She said the problem today is that people live in echo chambers where they turn on Fox News or MSNBC or their equivalents on TikTok and other social media and have their beliefs reinforced.

“But what algorithms and politicians are failing at doing is exposing the huge amount of common ground we actually have with each other and exposing the ways that we could be working together but are choosing not to,” she said.

Partisan media has been around since the founding of America, she said, but social media has made it easier to share hyper-partisan information.

“We are inundated with information that we are then supposed to form an opinion on and do something with it,” she said.

While meeting with students from two Advanced Placement U.S. Government & Politics classes at Legion Memorial Building before the All-School Meeting, McMahon told students they should think about whether they have time to check to see if a social media post is true before sharing it with friends.

“If the answer is no, you’re better off not resharing it,” she said. “Because people do take real-word actions on these things.”

She told the students at the All-School Meeting that a free press plays an incredibly important role in upholding democracy, asking students how they would know what is going on if not for the media?

“When people say, ‘I don’t trust the media,’ where else are you getting your information from? How do you know what’s happening on the other side of the world if there aren’t reporters there telling you?” she asked. “They serve a really important purpose. But that doesn't mean you should trust everything that they say. Because sometimes they get it wrong.”

She told the students they should have a healthy skepticism about news stories. But she said most people don't have the time and resources to find out what is happening.

“So trust but verify,” she said.

 

 

 

She said the fact that Congress had its least productive session ever last year, passing only 34 laws, as proof that the current way of doing things isn’t working. She said the incentive structure is broken because members of Congress today are more interested in getting the most viral videos to raise campaign funds than focusing on doing the best job of helping the largest number of Americans.

“Members of Congress are no longer incentivized to work with other people from the opposing party, which you really do have to do in order to be a good member of Congress. They aren’t incentivized to do that. They are incentivized to go viral to raise money,” she said.

McMahon said another problem with politics today is that “we’ve arrived at this zero-sum game of ‘I have to win and that means you have to lose.’ ”

“That’s not how progress is made. Progress is not made in politics by defeating other people. Progress is made by working together to accomplish something,” she said. “This idea of I can’t have EVERYTHING I want, then you get nothing. That’s not historically how anything worth having has ever happened. People have to work together to accomplish important thing.”

She said people should be willing to hold their opinions more loosely and be willing to change their minds when presented with newer and better information.

“The fastest way to stop being wrong is to change your mind faster,” she said.