How to heal a divided nation: retired judge calls for unity through the Constitution at USU Forum

LOGAN — He began with the bad news.

“The United States is politically polarized in ways that it has never been before,” retired Judge Thomas B. Griffith told a crowd of Utah State University students and community members.

Then he ended with the good news.

“Only six million people watch cable news,” he proclaimed as the crowd chuckled.

Griffith hosted the second annual President’s Forum on Conflict and Conflict Transformation at USU on Tuesday, March 25. He suggested that while the United States is facing affective polarization like it has never experienced before – there is hope. 

“The overwhelming majority of Americans are sick and tired of this,” he told an audience at the Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall.  

Disagreement is not new, he said, but the vitriol for anyone with opposing views is.

“It’s not just that you think the other side has bad tax polices – you actually hate them. That’s new”

He said the contempt has entered into our public discourse, with the main dissemination originating in cable news, talk radio and social media. 

“If you’re getting your information from social media – you’re being played – it is being curated,” Griffith cautioned the crowd, then jokingly said. “I’m not going to tell students to not get their news from social media – but don’t.”

The polarization leads people to believe anyone who does not agree with their viewpoint is inherently immoral. He said both republicans and democrats believe each is immoral and the percentages for that perspective are up in recent years. He quoted social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt who said, American democracy is facing a “catastrophic failure” if it doesn’t change course soon. Haidt said we don’t know what a democracy looks like when all the trust is drained out of the system.

Griffith disagreed with the last part of that sentence. 

“We know. It looks a lot like January 6th.”

After sharing the current state of our nation’s affective polarization Griffith shared what can be done to build trust in our democracy – the constitution.

The United States was founded on a structure of government that tells people how to operate when we disagree, he said adding that we can save the constitution and our nation by working in our local communities.

“It won’t come from a talking head on cable, I can tell you that.”

Too often the constitution is held up as a prop to justify focus on a singular amendment like gun or religious rights, he said.

“Don’t wave your pocket copy of the constitution in front of me,” the retired judge admonished the crowd.

Those are important issues, he said, but not the only issue.

Eleven political moderates met at Benjamin Franklin’s home and made a compromise for the sake of unity before they knew the compromise, he said, sharing the origin story of how the constitution was created.

Saving the constitution will take the same compromise and open perspective from both sides.

“I believe that is the only way it can be preserved.”

He ended his lecture with a clarion call for everyone to display more understanding of others and listening.

“To all patriots, I am here to say – you want to save the constitution? Work on our bonds of affection,” Griffith told the audience. “It is my hope that we will continue nurturing and strengthening our bonds of affection for those who see the world differently than we do.”

After the 30-minute keynote address, a panel discussion began between Lord Michael Hastings, and Jeannie Johnson, which was moderated by Joseph Ward, dean of the USU College of Humanities and Social Services.

They discussed how Americans can change the discourse by using the constitution to unify each other. 

Hastings is a member of UK Parliament, the British House of Lords and the Chancellor of Regents University London as well as professor of leadership at the Huntsman School of Business. Johnson is a political science professor at USU who previously worked in the U.S. Intelligence community. 

Griffith said learning how to disagree can begin in higher education. 

“From what I know about Utah State, this is a great place that is doing that.”

Hastings said universities have a responsibility to broaden the mind and help students see a world they do not understand. 

“Discovering each other is a really important part of this growth,” Hastings told the crowd of students and community members.

Johnson added it will be hard to change until we get back to the community and the younger generation and learn from them.

“I think it will be hard to heal this divide, until we bridge those,” she said. “Higher education can engage in actual healing.”