EDITORIAL: Stepping back from the precipice of hyper-partisanship

Ask anyone you know, and they’ll tell you: This election season has marked new lows in our civic discourse. The casting of political foes as not only misguided but evil has been the state of affairs in national races since at least 2020, but since then, it has spread not only to our statewide races but even, to some extent, those of our actual neighbors running for offices like School Board or the Anchorage Assembly. This coarsening of our politics isn’t just corrosive to the goal of electing representatives who can work with one another; it heightens the increasingly real danger of violence by political extremists.

Political mailers and broadcast ads, always slightly unhinged, have gone off the rails this year. For failing to support defined-benefit retirement, Alaska Senate candidate Leslie Hajdukovich has been tarred by a national PAC as trying to “defund the police.” Another national group sent out mailers falsely accusing Rep. Mary Peltola of hurting Alaskans’ Permanent Fund dividends through her vote on an oil production bill that did nothing of the sort. In an internecine feud on the right, the Alaska Family Council was taken to task by its former board member Fred Dyson for what he called the “distortions, lack of facts, prejudice, personal vendettas, lack of due diligence, appeal to base emotions and lack of civility” in the Christian group’s voter guide. And while opponents of ranked choice voting called out the “No on 2″ campaign for its misleading claim that military members could be disenfranchised by a return to semi-closed primaries, they simultaneously made their own misleading claims about how the system works and RCV’s propensity to disenfranchise rural and minority residents — and have been fined nearly $200,000 so far for rampant campaign finance violations, such as funneling donations through a fake church.

On the national stage, the scene is even worse, with rhetoric ratcheted up to a level where experts have warned of the potential for “stochastic terrorism” — where irresponsible violent language by popular figures is taken all too seriously by unstable people who go on to commit violent acts. Already, we’ve seen an assassination attempt against Donald Trump and violent threats against Kamala Harris. This is a dangerous trend, and left unchecked, there’s no reason to believe it won’t lead to more violence in the future, like the kind that happened at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — or even worse.

This situation, and the likelihood it will turn even more vitriolic and uncivil, may seem inevitable. But we got here one step at a time, and that’s how we get back, too. The reason politics is conducted this way is because it has worked, and political campaigns respond to the rewards they get for their actions, regardless of the distaste most of us profess to have for them. If we want this increasingly ugly status quo to change, we have to put our money — and our votes — where our mouths are. Don’t support campaigns that distort the truth about their opponents, and make sure the candidates whose campaigns do so know why you’re not in their camp. Don’t support candidates who foment violence. And don’t repeat misinformation or dehumanize others who disagree with you politically — doing so makes you part of the problem.

It’s a long road back to the kind of civic discourse America deserves, but that just makes it all the more imperative that we start now. On Tuesday, send a message by voting against the politics of division, discord and disinformation — don’t support candidates or campaigns that have stooped to the level of vilifying their opponents by misleading voters. Let them know by your actions that this kind of behavior is beyond the pale, and they won’t have your support unless they desist.

Instead, support candidates who will work with their political opponents rather than demonize them. Support campaigns that try to make our system work better instead of tearing it apart with obstructionism and grandstanding. We’ve got a long way to go, and like it or not, we have to travel that road together.