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How do your political views impact your perception?
by Evan Dean
1:48 PM EST, Tue November 03, 2020
CAPE CORAL, Fla. – If you've had a hard time getting along with that co-worker with the "Trump 2020" flag or that cousin who swears by Joe Biden, you're not alone.
It feels like the political divide in America is deeper than ever before.
"I don't recall a time that we've been this divided," Dr. Alise Bartley of the Florida Gulf Coast University Department of Counseling said.
On the eve of the presidential election, in what feels like the "Divided States of America," how much do people's political views impact their perception?
The NBC2 Investigators went to Cape Coral to find out. With an iPad and a microphone, we showed Republicans and Democrats recent viral videos to get their reactions.
First, we showed the video of a man who was confronted for not wearing a mask in a Lee County Costco. He did not like being filmed, and starts yelling and swearing at the man who was recording.
"Back the f* up! Put your f**** phone down," the man is heard yelling.
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"I just think he's an idiot," Tom, a Democrat, said after watching the video. "I don't know how else to put it."
"It's only polite to wear a mask because you're helping save yourself and them as well," Vanjie, another Democrat, said.
"Why do you have to videotape somebody? Everybody just wants to pull their phones out," Chris Walker, a Republican, said about the video."If he was [in the wrong,] if he wasn't — it's nobody else's concern."
The NBC2 Investigators then showed people video of a protester being knocked to the ground by a Collier County deputy. The protester was running toward a friend who'd just been arrested.
"Oh man. That was quite violent," Tom, a Democrat, said.
"I think the way that they slammed her to the ground was wrong," Vanjie said. "Perhaps they could've communicated to her that she needed to calm down first."
"The policemen have to do their job," Phil Longo, a Republican, said. "They have to stop her. It's not a free for all."
"Terrible," Marc Bonaparte, a Democrat, said. "Terribly handled by the police. It's brutality."
"It didn't look like he really hit her. I think she just stopped — and a lot of that could've been bouncing off," Karl Wheatley, a Republican, said. "She was [in the wrong.] Because she shouldn't have been out there. If her friend was under arrest, she shouldn't have been interfering."
In the end, there were no major surprises in our small experiment. Opinions were divided along party lines.
"I think right now [our political view] is the focus of who we are because, frankly, none of us wants to focus in on COVID anymore," Bartley said.
She said this kind of polarization is bad for our society and can impact our ability to communicate with each other.
"We don't know when this is going to be over. We don't know what the new normal is going to look like. So we need to focus in on something that gives a feeling of power. Which is to talk about politics," Bartley said. "We're not focusing in on coming together and all working together so we can get through COVID in a healthy way."
So, how do we fix this? How do we come together?
While there's not one easy answer, Bartley shared a couple of important suggestions.
Remember, not everyone has the same background or experiences you've had. That's often how our views are formed.
And how do you share those views? That, she said, can make a difference.
"I would encourage all of us to present our viewpoints in a way that is calm and cool because maybe the other person will listen to us," she said. "I think there is never a time where we shouldn't be as nice as possible to others. Because we never know what they're going through."
Tags: electionnbc2 investigatorspolitics
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