The words question and quest are cognates. Only through inquiry can we discover truth.

—Carl Sagan

Policy should be based on facts, science, and logic with an eye toward a final goal while maintaining a balance with America’s core principles and values. That’s a mouthful, right? But the thing to understand is a policy based on ideology, emotions, or beliefs cannot be defended nor justified to those who don’t share the same beliefs. People tend to listen to their own bubble of news and opinions, almost crafted for them. This limits their exposure to other ideas from people outside their bubble. Policy must be based on inquiry, thorough analysis, and a view toward long-term goals, rather than the short-term noise that these media bubbles tend to generate.

This is the biggest problem with the present policy divide: it is based on emotions and not on science or facts. And emotions and beliefs cannot be quantified and debated easily, which leaves little chance to find that common ground. Further, this worsens when the discourse demonizes the opposing party, and those who disagree are portrayed as evil, delusional, or outright insane. This completely stifles discussion, and it is the reason we have had gridlock within Congress and some state legislatures. It also makes compromise impossible. People can come to an agreement with someone who doesn’t see things in the same way, but they cannot with someone they view as evil. There’s no common ground for people when one side links the other to insanity or delusion. Americans need to learn how to sift through the discussions and recognize propaganda from both the right and the left. They also need to ignore political leaders or speakers who tell them how evil or dangerous the other side is or how that side will destroy America. No American truly wants to destroy America, but a number of politicians are trying to implement policy based on special interests, beliefs, or stories that don’t fully consider the national views or the real benefit or harm for the overall country. Lobbyists have always roamed the halls of government advocating special interests with very little consideration for the overall country. While some point to these lobbyists’ abilities to supply special interest money to politicians and political action committees as a new danger, that danger has always existed. The lack of debate, the lack of conversation about issues, and the demonization of those who don’t agree with a political belief—these are the true dangers to America.

What is needed are policies based on facts supported by logic that can be rationally explained to all sides. Logic can also show the benefits to all groups. This may involve policies that seem unfair to one group or another, but a clear illustration of how it benefits the overall country (and what compensations or agreements can be made with the slighted group) should be able to encourage a working policy.

To that end, everyone needs to agree that facts supply the basis of understanding. Often, individual emotional stories are brought out to support each side of an argument. As a culture, we are storytellers who dramatize stories to make exaggerated points. How else do you explain three little pigs huddling in a brick house with a wolf at the door? These stories have provided a way of teaching morals and ideas. But currently, stories abound on both sides of every issue. An example is the case of gun control, where examples of homeowners shooting intruders can be matched with stories of mass murders and children getting shot from unsecured guns. Lacking data and analysis, people must decide their position on the issue based on these competing stories and one’s personal views and emotions. The facts and corresponding data would identify how often homeowners legally defended themselves versus how many children were injured, how many homeowners had their own gun turned against them, and how many mass murders have been committed. Individual stories are filled with graphic and emotional impact to sway an argument, but the facts and data need to be studied to understand the overall effect and what is truly occurring to the country. Analysis resulting from data needs to shape policy to address the whole country and not the special interests.

There also needs to be consideration that any policy that results in laws must consider how those laws will be implemented and paid for. It is foolish to pass a law that the members of law enforcement can’t actually enforce. It might make some politicians and their constituents feel good, but without the ability to enforce it, there is no real benefit. The policy must be thought through, including how it will be paid for, what it will do, how it will be enforced, and the potential unintended consequences. We can’t let politicians demand something that leaves others to work out the details, is impossible to implement, results in crippling unintended consequences, or violates the Constitution.

Everyone alsoneeds to recognize that a policy is not going to make everyone happy. Because we have such a diversity of opinions, no policy is going to satisfy everyone. It is important to accept that compromises are necessary. This runs contrary to a strong belief on the far right and far left that compromise means weakness and giving in to any degree to the other side should be avoided at all costs. But how far are both of the extreme sides really willing to go? The fact we have had almost dysfunctional government for the last fifteen years seems to indicate pretty far.

A definition of democracy is the “control of an organization or group by the majority of its members,” and we need to recognize that once the majority has decided, then the minority needs to respect the decision. At the same time, the majority cannot violate America’s basic values of freedom and equality and understand that policies cannot discriminate against any group by race, sex, age, economic class, or education.

Compromise in addition to policy based on logic, science, and facts is what America was founded on. These attributes have sustained it during many a crisis and are needed again