My mom and I had a political chat tonight that left me feeling enlightened and thinking more about a line from a book I’m reading called American Creation. Near the beginning of chapter five, the author states the following about some of the founders’ difficulty in grasping the feasibility of an overtly partisan government:

“…one of the ultimate implications of the two-party system that was so hard for most of the founders to accept was the realization that different versions of truth could coexist alongside one another and both claim, with considerable plausibility, to be true. Unlike mathematics, in politics there was no agreed-upon solution reached by sheer brainpower and logic, but rather an ongoing and never-ending struggle between contested versions of the truth.”

This statement resonates profoundly in today’s charged political climate. As we get caught up in our debates and inspired opinions, our investment in our candidates, the chosen torch-bearers of our beliefs, we often overlook the effective and resilient principle our government operates on.

Truth vacillates. People whose truths disagree with ours are not enemies, they simply offer different perspectives. The political process does not help us see this fact; political campaigns smear one another, parties lash out and blame the other when mistakes happen, and because of this polarization at the top, we, the people, lose sight of the objectivity that works so well in a system like ours.

Near the middle of our conversation, my mom stopped and asked: “Tell me the top 5 reasons why you want Obama in office.” I, in my typically wordy way, rattled off technology, political adroitness, bipartisanship, rejuvenation of the American image, and analogous personal beliefs–including pro-choice–as my top 5. My mention of abortion led to an, at times emotional, follow-up debate about the benefits and detriments of a woman’s right to choose.

Though the discussion wasn’t novel, it highlighted the fact that parallel truths, as perceived so perplexedly by the founders, can and do exist side-by-side. My mother and I deeply believe in our points of view, living our opinions through our daily actions. And in this country, we are always fairly evenly split by our coexistent truths, which explains the rareness of the ever-elusive “landslide” political victory. We battle competitively, yes, but respectfully, too. That’s what I love, that’s what we all love, about America. We can exist as ourselves even in a world where our truths may not be those of the majority. It’s an amazingly successful experiment in the existence of multiple realities.