As we file into voting booths to decide our nation’s future, it can be tempting to see our political opponents as our enemies. But the health of our great nation relies on seeing them, instead, as our friends and neighbors with whom we happen to disagree on many issues.

It’s easy to listen to Fox News or MSNBC and conclude that our political opponents are almost a different species from us: that they don’t value what we value and don’t care for what we care for. It’s easy to conclude that they must not love their families or want to build a safer and more prosperous America for their children. But the data show this isn’t true.