I’m so glad Dick Pombo didn’t know how to Unite and Conquer

If Dick Pombo was on Twitter, he would get a #fail.

This past congressman devoted his entire political career to savage our planet’s environmental resources. He’s best known for attempting to cease the Endangered Species Act, because, according to him, it put “rats and shellfish” before people. Really, Dick? I would think you would be all for saving rats and spineless creatures…

The name of the act he was trying to pass was ironically called the “Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act” and if it would have passed, we could have said good-bye to every single endangered animal by 2015.

Somehow this past Congressman was able to gain enough support to pass legislation that stopped habitat protections from being operated on 150 million acres of wilderness and that lifted a 25-year moratorium on drilling for oil off the shores of the U.S.

In politics and when building coalitions, you’ll be lucky if you never run into the Pombo’s of the world. These people often have a lot of power and somehow manage to get support. It’s easy to get enraged when dealing with someone that’s fighting for very opposite ideals.

When dealing with people like Pombo, do some research and figure out what key messages are going to convince people that the opposition is wrong. Instead of listing 1,356 reasons why species need to remain protected, have a few well-crafted messages that speak to values that we all can relate to (see: sustainability, humanity, protection).

Being able to Unite and Conquer often means finding the source

It’s tempting try and convince everyone and their mother why your issue matters and why your policy or change is essential, but in order to really unite and conquer, it’s often more effective to find a central source.

With issues with religious undertones and debates, it’s important to educate the person who has the most control: the church, congregation or temple’s leader. This video shows how the HRC is reaching out to these people. While the video has a powerful message of people of traditional religious convictions changing their minds, the most exciting part about this outreach is the effect it is going to have. By reaching one religious leader, the HRC is reaching hundreds of people that those leaders have influence over.

Whatever change your are trying to make, find out if there are any influencers that you can educate in order to increase awareness and spread your message to a larger audience. By spreading this message, you’ll be able to unite and conquer much more effectively.

Report card for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition: A

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition does an amazing job of promoting their cause and getting people to take action. Through their actions they have helped pass a bike plan that will make San Fran one of the most bike-friendly cities in the US. The plan includes 45 new bike lanes on city streets.

Instead of focusing on lofty goals, like getting everyone to ditch their cars (but, hey, I drive a hybrid!) and ride bikes instead, they’ve focused on values like safety, community, sustainability, and the environment. They also did research and found out what people wanted and needed in order to make their goal (by 2012, 25% of San Franciscans will use bicycles as a frequent mode of transportation) become a reality. What did they find out? That in order to make the streets safer for biking, they needed to get more people out of their cars and onto bikes. How would they get them to do this? Well, they had to make the streets safer for bikes.

By promoting safety, community and sustainability, this group has been able to make strides in legislation in order to help citizens get the safe, bike-friendly streets they need.

And these values and strategies have paid off, because of their efforts, the number of people using bikes as a form of transportation has doubled in the last decade. Now, “over 30,000 San Franciscans use bicycles as their primary mode of transportation.”

Tom Tancredo definitely knew how to divide, but not how to conquer

For the 10 years he was in the House, Tancredo was dead set on deporting every single undocumented worker and ceasing all forms of immigration all together. One of his most famous examples of how dead-set he was on accomplishing this goal is that he “wanted to deport the family of an undocumented high school boy who was profiled in The Denver Post for his perfect grades.”

What’s interesting is that (as with most of us in America) he is the grandson of immigrants. I still don’t get the logic behind arguing against immigration when you yourself wouldn’t be here if America hadn’t had an open door policy. But anyways, Tancredo was notorious for urging Americans to reject “the siren song of multiculturalism.”

It should be pretty obvious that Tancredo and I are on opposite sides of the spectrum, especially on this issue, but the key takeaway is that when running into the Tancredo’s of the world, look for the good.

While his views of immigration are, well, archaic at best, he does have a few values that most people would be able to agree on. For instance, he sponsored the Sudan Peace Act, which was passed unanimously in the Senate without amendment seven days later, and was signed into law on November 21, 2002.

Need more proof he has a heart? After the Columbine shooting, he gathered resources in order to respond to the Beslan school hostage crisis in Russia. He helped orchestrate Colorado students, who made thousands of cards and letters for the Russian children, which he and his wife passed out to the survivors.

If you’re in politics, coalitions, or just interact with people for that matter, it becomes obvious that we can’t always agree on everything. When working with people, especially those that you disagree with on big issues, it’s important to look at the good in them. If Tom Tancredo had focused more on working with people, instead of shutting them out via his harsh views on immigration, he would have had more successful terms in office.

If only Bella was a donkey, then this video would be perfect

Sure, it’s a corny comparison, but you have to wonder if two completely different species can forge a loyal and trusting relationship, than how come two humans with differences can have such difficulty doing the exact same thing?

Regardless of your political persuasion, there are always going to be people that have a view (or a few) that are different than yours. In any situation where you’re working together, whether it’s in a coalition or in politics, differences need to be put aside. Some of my good friends are Republicans, and no, we don’t agree on everything, but we were able to find issues and values that we could agree on and just focus on those things.

Just as Bella was able to look past the fact that Tara is an elephant and Tara looked past the fact that Bella is a dog, we should be able to look past differing values and views and see the things we have in common. Maybe someone you’re working with is against abortion, but you both can agree that women should have the right to breast feed in public. Focus on the issue you both agree on, not trying to convince them that abortion should be a woman’s right.

Wait until you’ve been friends for a while to do that. :)