[Applause]
after all too many tense discussions
over holiday gatherings
it seems Americans have come to a
conclusion politics simply aren’t dinner
table material because it’s easier to
talk about the New England Patriots than
it is the definition of patriotism
parties make for more pleasant
conversation when they’re Jimmy’s 12th
birthday not Democrat versus Republican
the conversation will stay lighter if
it’s focused on the album that’s about
to drop rather than the bomb and so we
avoid these conversations and build a
tension that has spilled from our dinner
tables to our streets and to our Twitter
feeds there’s a partisan divide
sprinting across our country and
covering our capital and now it’s found
its way into our family rooms and it’s
lurking at our lunch tables in 1980
American national election studies the
largest national voter survey in the
United States asked voters to rate their
approval of their own party and of the
opposing party on a scale of 0 to 100
degrees with 0 being the most negative
50 being neutral and 100 being the most
positive here are their results an
average of 72 degrees for voters own
parties and a slightly cooler 45 for the
opposing party in 2012 they conducted
the same survey voters use of their own
parties had hardly changed dropping just
two degrees the change was in their
views of the opposing party a reduction
from 45 degrees to just 30
over the course of 32 years our opinions
of one another have deteriorated and
today as a nation we struggle to even be
civil our discussions have become so
negative our words so provocative our
conversations so unproductive a large
part of this interior ation of unity and
civility this 15 degree reduction is due
to political bubbles think about a
bubble something that completely
encloses its interior and shelters it
from outside influences a closed case a
curved surface that lets light shine
through but distorts the resulting image
political bubbles work in a similar way
they close off their inhabitants they
don’t allow new ideas or information to
enter or develop they’re composed of
people who largely agree with one
another and if information that confirms
those people’s shared beliefs I grew up
on one coast or the other in a largely
suburban setting that in the majority of
the places I’ve lived had an incredible
diversity and while I interacted with
lots of different types of people and
experienced different places I never
really found my beliefs challenged and I
didn’t really go about challenging them
than myself in short I had created a
political bubble so my question is what
happens when a political bubble pops I
devoted many months of my junior year to
my campaign for youth Governor of
California
spoiler alert unfortunately I lost my
party primary but fortunately that
wasn’t the only thing I lost I lost a
bit of that bubble and when I prepared
for heated debates or answered barrages
of questions I sometimes found myself
disgusted by ideas and sentiments that I
didn’t think existed in my America
there’s a part of the brain called the
amygdala its job is to respond to
threats and it reacts with fear as
discovered in a recent USC study it’s
the same part of the brain that responds
when a person hears a statement that
runs counter to their deeply held
political beliefs so when I was on the
campaign trail or trying to wrap my mind
around the entire year of 2016 or just
the tumultuous events of the past two
weeks my brain literally recognized
ideas that came from outside of my
bubble as threats so what I’ve come to
realize in the aftermath of not just my
own election but also the recent
presidential and congressional elections
is that those ideas aren’t necessarily
threats they’re opportunities to learn
and to grow to understand one another to
strive towards a more perfect union
because we all want to make our
communities and our country better we
just have very different ideas about how
to get there and maybe about what there
looks like and that’s okay
that’s what makes democracy work so when
you’re talking politics with someone
instead of attacking them with how dare
you think that way ask them what do you
value most which life experiences
contributed to your perspective who are
your favorite politicians where did you
grow up and how does that influence
where you are now physically and
ideologically how do you get your news
what do you think about my opposing
views go into your conversation with the
goal of convincing secondary to the goal
of understanding this past February a
Sacramento’s youth in government
conference I was appointed to the
adversary core of the national issues
Commission basically my job was to find
everything wrong with every proposal
that came to my desk and then tear it
apart in the form of a speech at the
General Assembly it was fantastic there
was just one problem the vast majority
of the proposals that I read seemed to
fit perfectly into my own political
bubble so I texted my friends on the
other side of the aisle I listen to
podcasts that were at times almost
painful to my ears I read up ads from
media sources that lean in a direction
completely opposite my own because in
order for me to understand a different
perspective
I couldn’t simply know what that
perspective was I had to grasp why it
was and only when I forced myself out of
my political bubble did I realize how
harmful and limiting it had been I
didn’t change my views drastically on
every issue or many issues at all and I
didn’t suddenly find myself agreeing
with people on the other end of the
political spectrum but I came to see
them as just that people people whose
views and backgrounds and ideologies
happen to differ from my own not enemies
or obstacles but people people to work
with
as we continue together on this great
experiment of democracy political
bubbles endanger that democracy our
increasing exposure to a rising bidders
for partisanship over the past three
decades in dangers that democracy in
1980 Americans certainly weren’t an
agreement on everything just like every
other time throughout our history voters
temperatures towards the opposing party
hovered at a chilly yet survivable 45
degrees the vast majority of Americans
got their news from three sources
whether they liked it or not they were
exposed to the same information and try
as they may have they simply couldn’t
live in ideological isolation here are
just a few of our news options today
and because of this polarization no
matter where you personally fall in the
political spectrum you can find a media
source that confirms the beliefs you
allow in your political bubbles but
newsflash if you’re a liberal just
watching CNN or a conservative
exclusively listening to Fox News you’re
doing it all wrong I personally have and
at least one rule if on Twitter I follow
a few politicians I like I have to
follow at least one with whom I
fundamentally disagree if I read a few
articles I confirm my pre-existing
beliefs I have to read at least one that
doesn’t and I can’t always find someone
to speak with and disagree with but I
can listen to others speak and that’s
why whenever I watch CNN i watch Fox’s
coverage too and if I follow or read or
speak with or listen to at least one
then at least I’m trying I’m trying to
pop that political bubble and my
amygdala may catalog god as a threat but
I know that the greatest and most
pressing threat is avoiding these
conversations and interactions
altogether because look where that got
us
it got us to 30 degrees and why is that
significant
the 95th Congress from 1977 to 78 went
through 20 2313 pieces of legislation
the 112th Congress from 2011 to 13 went
through 12,000 299 that’s roughly half
as productive and of the 240 statutes
that this Congress actually managed to
pass 46 were dedicated to the admirable
legislative purpose of renaming post
offices 30 degrees is below freezing and
frozen objects don’t move if we’re all
from congressmen to ordinary citizens
frozen with deep partisan cracks and
stagnant political bubbles we won’t move
and certainly not forward this past
summer I interned at the office of our
Democratic state senator and of all of
the elected officials in Senate District
seven we worked most closely with our
Republican Assemblywoman there was a
poster on the wall next to my cubicle
that listed 10 governing principles the
third was pursued by partisan decisions
they’re always better and longer-lasting
so if I had to say one thing that I took
away from that internship it would be
this
we can disagree without being
disagreeable we can work across the
aisle or at least talk across it we
don’t have to stay in our political
bubbles so I ask you please to engage in
polite and productive and passionate and
purposeful political discourse have a
conversation try to pop a political
bubble at least one thank you
[Applause]
after all too many tense discussions
over holiday gatherings
it seems Americans have come to a
conclusion politics simply aren’t dinner
table material because it’s easier to
talk about the New England Patriots than
it is the definition of patriotism
parties make for more pleasant
conversation when they’re Jimmy’s 12th
birthday not Democrat versus Republican
the conversation will stay lighter if
it’s focused on the album that’s about
to drop rather than the bomb and so we
avoid these conversations and build a
tension that has spilled from our dinner
tables to our streets and to our Twitter
feeds there’s a partisan divide
sprinting across our country and
covering our capital and now it’s found
its way into our family rooms and it’s
lurking at our lunch tables in 1980
American national election studies the
largest national voter survey in the
United States asked voters to rate their
approval of their own party and of the
opposing party on a scale of 0 to 100
degrees with 0 being the most negative
50 being neutral and 100 being the most
positive here are their results an
average of 72 degrees for voters own
parties and a slightly cooler 45 for the
opposing party in 2012 they conducted
the same survey voters use of their own
parties had hardly changed dropping just
two degrees the change was in their
views of the opposing party a reduction
from 45 degrees to just 30
over the course of 32 years our opinions
of one another have deteriorated and
today as a nation we struggle to even be
civil our discussions have become so
negative our words so provocative our
conversations so unproductive a large
part of this interior ation of unity and
civility this 15 degree reduction is due
to political bubbles think about a
bubble something that completely
encloses its interior and shelters it
from outside influences a closed case a
curved surface that lets light shine
through but distorts the resulting image
political bubbles work in a similar way
they close off their inhabitants they
don’t allow new ideas or information to
enter or develop they’re composed of
people who largely agree with one
another and if information that confirms
those people’s shared beliefs I grew up
on one coast or the other in a largely
suburban setting that in the majority of
the places I’ve lived had an incredible
diversity and while I interacted with
lots of different types of people and
experienced different places I never
really found my beliefs challenged and I
didn’t really go about challenging them
than myself in short I had created a
political bubble so my question is what
happens when a political bubble pops I
devoted many months of my junior year to
my campaign for youth Governor of
California
spoiler alert unfortunately I lost my
party primary but fortunately that
wasn’t the only thing I lost I lost a
bit of that bubble and when I prepared
for heated debates or answered barrages
of questions I sometimes found myself
disgusted by ideas and sentiments that I
didn’t think existed in my America
there’s a part of the brain called the
amygdala its job is to respond to
threats and it reacts with fear as
discovered in a recent USC study it’s
the same part of the brain that responds
when a person hears a statement that
runs counter to their deeply held
political beliefs so when I was on the
campaign trail or trying to wrap my mind
around the entire year of 2016 or just
the tumultuous events of the past two
weeks my brain literally recognized
ideas that came from outside of my
bubble as threats so what I’ve come to
realize in the aftermath of not just my
own election but also the recent
presidential and congressional elections
is that those ideas aren’t necessarily
threats they’re opportunities to learn
and to grow to understand one another to
strive towards a more perfect union
because we all want to make our
communities and our country better we
just have very different ideas about how
to get there and maybe about what there
looks like and that’s okay
that’s what makes democracy work so when
you’re talking politics with someone
instead of attacking them with how dare
you think that way ask them what do you
value most which life experiences
contributed to your perspective who are
your favorite politicians where did you
grow up and how does that influence
where you are now physically and
ideologically how do you get your news
what do you think about my opposing
views go into your conversation with the
goal of convincing secondary to the goal
of understanding this past February a
Sacramento’s youth in government
conference I was appointed to the
adversary core of the national issues
Commission basically my job was to find
everything wrong with every proposal
that came to my desk and then tear it
apart in the form of a speech at the
General Assembly it was fantastic there
was just one problem the vast majority
of the proposals that I read seemed to
fit perfectly into my own political
bubble so I texted my friends on the
other side of the aisle I listen to
podcasts that were at times almost
painful to my ears I read up ads from
media sources that lean in a direction
completely opposite my own because in
order for me to understand a different
perspective
I couldn’t simply know what that
perspective was I had to grasp why it
was and only when I forced myself out of
my political bubble did I realize how
harmful and limiting it had been I
didn’t change my views drastically on
every issue or many issues at all and I
didn’t suddenly find myself agreeing
with people on the other end of the
political spectrum but I came to see
them as just that people people whose
views and backgrounds and ideologies
happen to differ from my own not enemies
or obstacles but people people to work
with
as we continue together on this great
experiment of democracy political
bubbles endanger that democracy our
increasing exposure to a rising bidders
for partisanship over the past three
decades in dangers that democracy in
1980 Americans certainly weren’t an
agreement on everything just like every
other time throughout our history voters
temperatures towards the opposing party
hovered at a chilly yet survivable 45
degrees the vast majority of Americans
got their news from three sources
whether they liked it or not they were
exposed to the same information and try
as they may have they simply couldn’t
live in ideological isolation here are
just a few of our news options today
and because of this polarization no
matter where you personally fall in the
political spectrum you can find a media
source that confirms the beliefs you
allow in your political bubbles but
newsflash if you’re a liberal just
watching CNN or a conservative
exclusively listening to Fox News you’re
doing it all wrong I personally have and
at least one rule if on Twitter I follow
a few politicians I like I have to
follow at least one with whom I
fundamentally disagree if I read a few
articles I confirm my pre-existing
beliefs I have to read at least one that
doesn’t and I can’t always find someone
to speak with and disagree with but I
can listen to others speak and that’s
why whenever I watch CNN i watch Fox’s
coverage too and if I follow or read or
speak with or listen to at least one
then at least I’m trying I’m trying to
pop that political bubble and my
amygdala may catalog god as a threat but
I know that the greatest and most
pressing threat is avoiding these
conversations and interactions
altogether because look where that got
us
it got us to 30 degrees and why is that
significant
the 95th Congress from 1977 to 78 went
through 20 2313 pieces of legislation
the 112th Congress from 2011 to 13 went
through 12,000 299 that’s roughly half
as productive and of the 240 statutes
that this Congress actually managed to
pass 46 were dedicated to the admirable
legislative purpose of renaming post
offices 30 degrees is below freezing and
frozen objects don’t move if we’re all
from congressmen to ordinary citizens
frozen with deep partisan cracks and
stagnant political bubbles we won’t move
and certainly not forward this past
summer I interned at the office of our
Democratic state senator and of all of
the elected officials in Senate District
seven we worked most closely with our
Republican Assemblywoman there was a
poster on the wall next to my cubicle
that listed 10 governing principles the
third was pursued by partisan decisions
they’re always better and longer-lasting
so if I had to say one thing that I took
away from that internship it would be
this
we can disagree without being
disagreeable we can work across the
aisle or at least talk across it we
don’t have to stay in our political
bubbles so I ask you please to engage in
polite and productive and passionate and
purposeful political discourse have a
conversation try to pop a political
bubble at least one thank you
[Applause]
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