Jesse Watters’ mother just summed up everything wrong with Fox News

Though Watters may not have listened to his mother, the rest of us should

Jesse Watters (Getty Images)

Last night, I was at an Irish pub in Derry. I hadn’t realized it was an Irish pub at first – I’m an American first, and a Londoner second if I’m anything in these islands – until a man I met corrected me. “You’re not in the UK,” he told me. “You’re in Ireland.”

I understood his point immediately. The history of the Troubles drenches every corner of this town like the rain blowing in off the North Atlantic. Peace in Northern Ireland was a long process, but it was undoubtedly sped along by American intervention. My guides on this trip gave much of the credit to George Mitchell, a long-serving senator from Maine whom President Bill Clinton appointed as special envoy for Northern Ireland. He was crucial in securing the Good Friday Agreement, a peace deal which still holds more than a quarter-century later.

I give you this travelogue-cum-history lesson against the backdrop of a divide in our own nation. Since 2016, Americans have been at one another’s throats. While certainly nothing we experienced comes close to the Troubles, we have of late had our fair share of political strife. Divided more than at any point since the end of the Civil War, issues from abortion to gun control to gerrymandering and voting rights have cut to the core of our democracy. It may not be the Troubles, but America is certainly a troubled land.

A surprising voice of reconciliation emerged last night, though. Taking over from Tucker Carlson – ousted by Fox News in April after spreading conspiracy theories and vitriol for years – Jesse Watters debuted his show with, of all things, a conversation with his mom. Mrs Watters did not mince words as she offered her son some motherly advice. “Do not tumble into any conspiracy rabbit holes. We do not want to lose you and we do not want lawsuits, OK?” she told her son, asking him to “seek solutions versus fanning the flames” while asserting “there really has been enough Biden bashing” and encouraging him to “suggest that your people take less interest…in other people’s bodies.”

Jesse Watters, the rightwing firebrand known for parroting his network’s talking points, is not known for his conciliatory nature. Indeed, it seems like his mother’s words may have fallen on deaf ears; The Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt writes that “in his big debut, Watters essentially performed a Carlson tribute act, complete with unsubstantiated allegations against Hunter Biden, some bashing of Anthony Fauci, and the obligatory attacks on trans people.”

Though Watters may not have listened to his mother, the rest of us should. For too long, Americans on both sides of the political divide have been intractable and obtuse. Retreating into our echo chambers on social media and sorting ourselves into red states and blue states, we have lost sight of what the historian Shelby Foote, in an interview for Ken Burns’ seminal documentary The Civil War, called our “true genius” – compromise.

I take Foote’s point, though I would complicate it a bit. Some things I will never compromise on. As a gay man, equal marriage is one of those things. Abortion is another, as I view bodily autonomy as a fundamental right. I will never agree with the right on these things, just as they may well never agree with me on guns or universal healthcare and just as the abolitionists rightly would not compromise on slavery.

Yet Foote is right that compromise is, generally, what makes our system work. Our Constitution is itself a compromise between small states and big states, and our legislative branch was designed to make truly radical changes difficult. Only through compromise can such a diverse and varied society live together in relative harmony.

We cannot compromise with one another if we do not first stop despising one another. A 2020 study by Northwestern University found that Democrats and Republicans alike hate the other party more than they like their own. That is startling. Rather than being passionate about our positions, we are driven by fear and hatred of the other. The problem has been escalating for a while; a 2013 poll found that only a third of Americans felt that others could be trusted. It came to a boil in 2020, when disinformation about the election and the pandemic spread on social media. It boiled over on January 6.

Now, though, the fever seems to be breaking. Something – I cannot explain it – feels different. I first felt this with the collective shrug so many on the right had to Trump’s indictment. The crowds he expected to turn up in Miami simply did not. People, regardless of their political persuasion, seem to agree that no one is above the law – not even a former president.

This is not strictly a right-wing phenomenon. In 2016, I wrote my first column for The Independent on how I was disowning my Trump-voting relatives. Last year, I wrote about why that was wrong. In the meantime, I have basically stopped watching cable news in the evening because I simply cannot stomach the animosity. Yes, I am angry about a lot of things happening in our nation. I do not need Lawrence O’Donnell to remind me of it before bed, though.

In truth, most Americans are simply good and decent people who – though we are passionate about our beliefs and disagree on much – respect their fellow citizens. Mrs Watters seems to be a prime example of this kind of American: someone proud of her son but who recognizes the damage the media (myself included) can do when we stop arguing about ideas and start demonizing our fellow citizens.

Mrs Watters wants her son “to promote conversation that maintains a narrative thread.” I want him – and me – to do that, too. I try to put forth my opinion without attacking people. Do I always succeed? No. I am human. But lowering the temperature is something I agree with Mrs Watters that those of us in the media need to lead by example on. So much of the hatred and division within our society stems from the demonization of different groups by the likes of cable news pundits who see not opponents, but enemies.

We cannot be one another’s enemies, though. Like it or not, we all live in the United States. We must share this space accordingly. It is certainly a big enough place that there should be space for everyone.

After all, Northern Ireland is a tiny piece of a small island with far more entrenched divisions than we have, yet they have managed to live in relative peace and harmony for 25 years. That that peace was aided by American involvement should be noted, because again – it shows us the genius for compromise that Shelby Foote was so proud of.

If we could help make peace here, we can help make peace at home. It starts with us, though: you, me, and Mrs Watters.