Editorial: Let's stop deifying and demonizing

Call us naive if you will, but we start from the premise that most Americans are people of good will - flawed by prejudices and self-interest. but fundamentally well meaning.

We see examples all the time of people putting themselves in harm's way to come to the aid of others, of outpourings of charity when the less fortunate are in need. There are heroes among us, and given the right circumstances, those heroes can be any and all of us.

Most people are loving and kind and well meaning.

But gosh, that would be hard to guess based on our cable news, on some elements of our social media and on the growing scorched-earth nature of our politics.

There always have been differences in political philosophy and the differences often have been passionate.

But increasingly, our partisanship has grown more vitriolic. In an academic study published two years ago, Nathan P. Kalmoe of Louisiana State University and Lillian Mason of the University of Maryland coined a phrase for it: "lethal partisanship."

It is a disturbing trend. In a survey conducted two years earlier, Kalmoe and Mason found that 42% of respondents identifying as Democrats and 42% of those identifying as Republicans viewed their political adversaries not simply as misguided but as "downright evil."

We do not listen to each other, and maybe that is the reason. If we do not respect each other, why would we listen?

Public opinion polls show that by overwhelming numbers, we are tired of this. We want to end all the infighting. We want to get along again. We want to give care to our democracy.

If we want to do that, there no doubt is a lot that goes into it. But it has to start with respect. It has to start with us listening to each other again.

There was an interesting piece in Time magazine last week, a proposal to reunite the country with something the authors call "The Unum Test" - a play off the national Latin motto e pluribus unum.

"We need to put country over party. We need to address the deeper causes of our divisions while developing a unifying vision that can guide policy debates going forward," the article said. "We call it the Unum Test. Here's how it works: put partisan blinders aside and ask yourself which policies would have the long-term effect of uniting - or further dividing - our country. The policies that pass the test won't all come from one party or ideology. That's precisely why it offers an off-ramp from our bitter polarized debates."

The authors offer a number of suggestions that they say meet this test. We agree with some; we're skeptical about others.

But the main thing we agree with is a test that puts country over party and politics. Let us be less devoted to parties or personalities. Let us be devoted to candor and solutions and willing to recognize that reasonable people can disagree.

E pluribus unum. Out of many, one.