Relational Politics: A Radical Idea

We hear a lot about how divided politics has become. I wonder whether part of the problem is that we’ve started treating disagreement itself as the problem.

I don’t think it is.

We can disagree about taxes, development, public safety, the environment or the role of government and still be neighbors. We can disagree strongly and remain curious about why someone sees an issue differently.

As a candidate for McHenry County Board District 9, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what it would look like to practice politics differently. I’ve come to think of it as relational politics.

For me, it starts with three ideas:

Connection before persuasion.
Curiosity before assumption.
Relationship before outcome.

That doesn’t mean avoiding difficult issues. It doesn’t mean watering down our values or pretending our differences don’t matter.

Listening to someone doesn’t obligate us to agree with them. Understanding another person’s perspective doesn’t require abandoning our own.

It means resisting the temptation to decide who someone is based on the letter next to their name.

It means asking questions before making assumptions.

It means being willing to say, “I don’t know yet,” when an issue deserves more thought instead of immediately reaching for the answer our political team expects us to have.

And it means remembering that our neighbors are people, not votes to acquire or opponents to defeat.

Apparently, that has become a radical idea.

I’m running as a Democrat. My values matter deeply to me, and relational politics doesn’t mean pretending otherwise. But if I’m elected to the McHenry County Board, I won’t represent only Democrats. I’ll represent everyone in District 9, including people who disagree with me and people who didn’t vote for me.

That matters especially in local government.

The decisions made by a County Board affect the roads we drive, the services our neighbors rely on, how our communities grow and how taxpayer dollars are spent. Those decisions deserve more than reflexive partisan answers. They deserve questions, listening, transparency and a willingness to learn.

Maybe changing the way we do politics doesn’t begin in Washington or Springfield.

Maybe it begins much closer to home.

Maybe it begins with the radical act of treating one another with basic decency.

Christine Hamm
Candidate for McHenry County Board, District 9 - Huntley

Christine-Hamm.com