Expanding our tribe

Not long after the release of an explosive recording of Donald Trump making crude comments about women, a polling website published a blog post detailing how the US electoral map would look if only women or men voted (Clinton wins 458 female electoral votes to 80 while Trump wins 350 male electoral votes to 188).

A similar picture has been circulating social media, suggesting that if the vote was restricted to people of colour, or white people with college degrees, the Democrats would be overwhelming winners, while if the election were up to non-college educated white folks the Republicans would walk in.

Of course the US system is polarised in a way that the Australian system isn’t: compulsory voting combined with a senate much more accessible for non-major parties makes a difference. The US has whole states that are traditionally safe Republican or Democrat the way Australia has individual seats that are safe Labor or safe Liberal.

However it’s likely that the same underlying factors driving the divergence in US voting patterns between genders, races and locations also exist in Australia.

One troubling factor is that, far from expanding our exposure to contrary and difficult opinions, the explosion of news and information available online may have had the opposite effect. Where once, due to geography and circumstance, we may have had to interact with those in different circumstances who hold different views, online we can curate a group of like-minded people.

Another manifestation of this is the desire to create safe spaces (both online and especially at university) where dissenting voices are not refuted but silenced.

This is not exclusively a problem of the left either; witness the speed at which defenders of Donald Trump countered the release of the tape mentioned above with attacks directed at the Clinton campaign.

For those of us who want to shrink government, this is a real challenge and there is no easy answer.

At least the first step is in our control: read widely. Read Chris Kenny and Paul Kelly in the Australian but read Bernard Keane in Crikey and Sean Kelly in the Monthly too. Take in the thoughts of Peter Costello and Kristina Keneally. Try to understand viewpoints that challenge your beliefs and articulate your opposition to them, don’t just mock them.

After all, our group isn’t big enough to cover the electoral map on our own.