Dialogue and Political Polarization: The Braver Angels Model
Americans are deeply divided over politics. Polarization has intensified over the past few years and conversations about politics are often deeply difficult. An organization called Better Angels is committed to facilitating dialogue across difference. You can learn more at their website: https://braverangels.org/ For a dictionary of terms often used in U.S. political discourse, click HERE.
In 2019, the Braver Angels Philadelphia chapter organized a workshop for SUSI scholars to observe. Red (conservative/Republican) and Blue (liberal/democrat) individuals engaged in a conversation about politics. This three-hour session was followed by a meal for scholars to meet the various red and blue participants to discuss more about how political divides can be bridged.
Workshop Title: Braver Angels Red-Blue Workshop: Bridging the Political Divide
Goals:
Understand the experiences and beliefs of those on the other side of the political divide
See if there are areas of commonality in addition to differences
Learn something that might be helpful to others in our community and the nation
Invite everyone to the possibility of forming an ongoing local red-blue alliance to have deeper, more localized conversations on specific issues,
The Process: A focus on listening and reflecting rather than debating and persuading
About Braver Angels:
In his First Inaugural Address in 1861, with the nation on the brink of Civil War, Lincoln appealed to the “better angels of our nature.” Today, in a nation screaming with headlines about our divisions, we have an opportunity to call forth something “better” within us and within the country we share.
Launched in 2016, Better Angels (now called Braver Angels due to a copyright dispute) is a bipartisan citizen’s movement to unify our divided nation. By bringing red and blue Americans together into a working alliance, we’re building new ways to talk to one another, participate together in public life, and influence the direction of the nation.
