美国大选过后如何弥合两党分歧

    但美国不能等着下一场体育盛会或下次飓风促使我们再次携起手来。不幸的是，据洛克称，形成“自己人”圈子通常要求有发自内心的共同目标——真正触动我们内心、而不是理智的东西。政治广告和公开攻击很管用，因为它们触动了情感反应。这么讲很奇怪，但为了让政党携手合作，领导人们或许不得不继续使用耸人听闻的语言，但从相互攻击转向应对共同威胁。

    弗吉尼亚大学（University of Virginia）达顿商学院（Darden School of Business）商业管理教授克里斯廷·贝法尔表示，他们可以低调处理先前的分歧。“讨论一个分歧很大的总统大选时，或许可以转向其他国家进行比较，它们的大选存在一些我们所没有的问题，”她说。“这样，可以让这里的流程和行为看起来比‘完全不同的那个国家’要好。”

    奥巴马总统上周三早些时候回答了这个问题。他在演讲中表示，严峻的经济形势总是会引发分歧。“我们绝不能忘记，就在我们讲话的时候，在远方国家的人们正在冒着生命危险，才能就重大问题发表主张，才能像我们一样获得投票的机会。”换句话说，这次竞选是一场丑陋的比赛，但“不同的那一个”更恶劣。

    当然，演讲只是让两极化的民众重新携手而迈出的第一步，也是很小的一步。现在，国会需要冰释前嫌。如果众议院发言人约翰·博纳在上周三的新闻发布会上的表态是真实可信的，我们或许正在接近这样的缓和。他说：“我们比很多人认为的都更加接近能让税改法案得以通过。”他说。时间将告诉我们，国会的接近达成协议是否会产生行动，而且，更重要的或许是，公众是否会颂扬那些愿意与对手冰释前嫌的政治领导人。

    译者：早稻米

    But America cannot wait for a sports event or another storm to get us to work together. Unfortunately, according to Rock, forming a new in-group often requires a visceral common goal -- something that taps into our gut instinct rather than our intellect. Political ads and public jabs work well because they trigger an emotional response. It's strange to say, but to get political parties to work together, leaders may have to continue to use alarmist language, but shift it away from each other and direct it a common threat.

    They can also play down previous disagreements, says Kristin Behfar, a professor of business administration at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business. "When talking about a very divisive campaign, you might change the comparison to what happens in countries where elections and campaigns are fraught with problems we don't have," she says. "Therefore, you make the process and behavior here look better than a 'different other.'"

    President Obama brought the point home early on Wednesday, arguing in his acceptance speech that tough economic conditions will always create controversy. "We can never forget that as we speak, people in distant nations are risking their lives right now just for a chance to argue about the issues that matter, the chance to cast their ballots like we did today." In other words, this was an ugly race, but the alternative, a "different other," would be worse.

    Of course, speeches are just a first, small step towards reconnecting a polarized population. Now Congress needs to unfreeze. It might even be approaching that necessary thaw, if House Speaker John Boehner spoke honestly during a press conference Wednesday: "We're closer than many think to the critical mass needed legislatively to get tax reform done," he said. Time will tell if Congress' proximity to agreement will lead to action and, perhaps more importantly, if the public is ready to reward political leaders who are willing to redefine their adversaries as colleagues.