Larry D. Lauer

The American Council on Education (ACE) is considered the “secretariat” of all higher education associations when it comes to advocacy with U.S. legislators. Much of its annual conference each year is spent on analyzing and discussing the most critical issues facing the industry. This year is no exception. But when the thinking and talking is over, what good will come of it?

My last post reported that I see an assault on all of higher education coming as the result of our totally polarized legislatures. In this totally dysfunctional climate progress on the issues is certainly not likely. But just as disturbing is the fact that polarization can also result in still another major dysfunction. It destroys any consistency in the use of key words. And when that happens, effective communication is also lost. My example… the words “conservative” and “liberal.”

In the world of political science “conservative” generally means a preference for limited government and maximum self-reliance. “Liberal” generally means a belief in the need for effective government and taxpayer supported social initiatives. Both are helpful terms describing legitimate philosophies of governance. But in a polarized world, these words are used to stand for the most extremes of those ideologies, and thus eventually become negative accusatory labels.

What’s interesting about communication dynamics is that when a term is misused consistently it can permanently lose its shared meaning.  And to make matters worse, there often isn’t another term to take its place. In the process, then, civility in dialogue is lost and mean-spirited attacks becomes the norm.

This is the situation we will be facing in legislatures all over the country in the coming months. It has become a nasty game that is fueled by extreme ideology, big money, and imprecise language. Is there a solution? In the short run I don’t see one. For now all we can do is press on and believe that persistence and time will find a way to heal everything.