Can anything combat political polarisation in America — or anywhere else? That is a burning question, as partisan hatred keeps rising, poisoning civic life and creating gridlock in Washington.
Some “solutions” have been proposed: change the primary process for selecting congressional candidates (which sometimes encourages extremes); launch a new centrist movement, like No Labels (polls show that one-third of voters define themselves as moderate); curb campaign finance and gerrymandering (which fund and foster political silos); or control social media (there is a virtual civil war in cyber space partly because social media is designed to create echo chambers). But last week, another idea was on display in Kentucky: using AI bots to support that elusive centrist ground. On Thursday, Doug Gorman, 62, judge executive of Warren County, released a “BG 2050 Initiative” report. This explains how his team will manage a projected near-doubling of the population of his town, Bowling Green, in the next 25 years, without causing fiscal shock or unleashing xenophobia.
He could have designed the project by letting the dominant political party (Republicans) dictate policy, or using town halls to canvass views. “But if I have a town hall with 200 people showing up, it quickly gets out of control with people shouting,” he told me. Indeed, Gorman — like many Americans — “hates polarisation” and is so disgusted by the current vitriol that he tells his constituents not to waste time watching Washington. “Ten per cent of [voters] are far right or left and insane and they make most of the noise. But most people are not.”