Two years ago, my organization, the Dignity Index, issued a warning to our country: Our national addiction to dehumanizing contempt had reached a point at which the future of the country was at stake. Contempt, not policy differences, our data suggested, is tearing us apart. Contempt is tearing our families apart, contributing to our mental health crisis, rupturing trust between people of differing political parties, and creating a dangerous spiral toward splitting the country in two.
Nothing has changed after Donald Trump's sweeping victory in this month's election. And nothing would have changed if Kamala Harris had won. As President Barack Obama noted, "Elections have consequences." One glaring consequence of the 2024 election is that our wounded relationships and deeply damaged trust in each other are more in need of healing than ever before. Elections create winners and losers, but they don't ease contempt or restore relationships. If anything, they risk making tensions worse as the losing side descends into anger and despair while the winning side plots a course toward domination.
Now that the election is over, we desperately need a dignity strategy that can ease our national crisis of contempt. We need a deescalation of contempt and an increase in dignity in how we treat each other. This is our nation's most........