MILWAUKEE — Just a few blocks from the Republican National Convention’s buzzing partisan energy, former U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp and college students pursued one mission: turn down the temperature of American political discourse.

 

“It’s always wonderful for me to see students come to the awareness that you can not agree with someone politically, but you can still respect them as a human being,” said Heitkamp, a Democrat who represented North Dakota for one term.

 

Most attendees at the Youth VoteFest workshops were students affiliated with the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, where Heitkamp is the director. In Heitkamp’s eyes, the institute acts as an unbiased entity separate from partisanship and what she described as sometimes “vitriolic” discourse.

 

Instead, Heitkamp and others from the institute work to teach students how to navigate disagreements and reach compromise — which is personal to the senator given her time representing a red state. To Heitkamp, her job is to expose students to “upper-level dialogue” and teach them how to forge compromises without having to sacrifice their principles.

 

“It’s a skill set we’re quickly losing in this country,” Heitkamp said. “It is a critical skill set not just for political engagement but everything that comes in life.”

 

To ease polarization, Heitkamp suggests adopting Final Five Voting — a system that eliminates party primaries. After an initial election, the voter ranks the five most popular candidates in relation to one another. The candidate who most consistently scores the highest across all voters is the winner.

 

Even though Heitkamp agrees that a two-party system forces compromise, she said Final Five Voting would give more people the chance to express their views rather than feeling like they’re “throwing their vote away” to a candidate that might not win or might not satisfactorily express their views. Choice gives incentive to participate, she said.

 

“They look at these candidates and think ‘Who do I think would be a good president?’ And they don’t see someone in either of these candidates,” Heitkamp said. “That’s a failure of our electoral system.”

 

During Wednesday’s workshops, Heitkamp and young voters brainstormed grassroots efforts to inspire greater civic engagement among their peers. The crowd broke into three groups: one planning events to unite ideologies, another exploring tactics to navigate polarized discourse, and the third strategizing how to encourage non-politically active peers.

 

This purposefully unbiased dialogue stands in stark contrast to its convention backdrop. Throughout the week, convention speakers and attendees have criticized the Democratic Party and President Joe Biden.

New Jersey Honorary Delegate Edward X. Young — who proclaims himself the “World’s Biggest Trump Supporter” — was among those who cranked up the rhetoric toward the other party.

 

“I think the Democratic Party is irreparably corrupt. I think they need to be wiped from the national landscape,” Young said. “The Democrats have become a dangerous, vile, homicidal evil, and they are a threat to democracy. They are a threat to the world."

 

Democrats are expected to embrace similar tactics against former President Donald Trump and his party at their convention next month.

 

Heitkamp isn’t surprised at this rhetoric — “You expect that at a political convention” — while noting the discourse’s temperature has cooled somewhat since Trump’s “horrific” assassination attempt. However, she cautioned against leaning into polarizing rhetoric.

 

“We have to learn how to disagree on principle of issues without inciting violence or unnecessarily demonizing our opponents,” Heitkamp said.

 

When negativity becomes a prominent feature in politics, Heitkamp said people lose interest in participating in elections. She said she believes that is particularly true for young voters. In fact, Heitkamp said she last observed “healthy youth engagement” during Barack Obama’s presidency.

 

“We’re at a low ebb for youth engagement because they’re not inspired by our politics and they don’t believe things can change,” Heitkamp said. “But my argument is: The last thing you should do is give up.”

 

Heitkamp’s advice to hesitant young voters is simple: “Sit down and make a list of what kind of country you want to live in.” Then, after itemizing these priorities, vote in accordance with personal values.

 

“Because we have rule of law, we have a government that functions,” Heitkamp said. And voting “is a critical component. Just connect the dots.”