Gabriella Timmis, Author at Braver Angels

Walk with me

Gabriella Timmis — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 22:18:46 +0000

I had just finished drafting this message when I read and watched videos of Alex Jeffrey Pretti being shot to death by ICE agents in Minneapolis. I felt a rush of anxiety, fear, and sadness; but, still, I was hoping it wasn’t true. It was; and it is our reality today.

Dr. Dimitri Drekonja, Pretti’s co-worker at the VA Medical Center, expressed the point on which I hope we all agree, no matter how you view ICE: “There is no reason for a guy like that to be dead, let alone to be killed by the agents of a government that employed him.”

➔ Two deaths in three weeks in Minneapolis.

➔ U.S. federal officers killing American citizens.

➔ Protestors storming church services with families and young children present.

➔ Local and federal officials arguing instead of talking, and leading, together.

So many reactions. So many questions. So many feelings.

Two things are on my mind right now about what is happening in Minneapolis:

What it means for our country and Braver Angels; and

2. The impact this reality, and the work we do, is having on each of us individually.

I want to start here: What we see in Minneapolis right now is a harsh but true reflection of us as a people.

Intense conflict requires an equal force in response to be resolved; and that force can take very different forms. It can be domination (power and control) or connection (patience, perseverance, and perspective).

I believe it is that simple.

Right now, “we the people” seem to prioritize “tribal interests” over the interests of all. With every emergent conflict, we are choosing domination (or apathy) over connection. It doesn’t matter if the point is destroying the “other side” or checking out as if one has no individual part in the play of our national drama. In both, we choose a path that does not lead to a better America.

Braver Angels’ quest is to inspire people to embrace a way of being because they see it as a genuine pathway to heal society and make a better world. While other groups rightfully advocate for specific solutions or organize protests, Braver Angels focuses on the methods of how we reach those answers. We do it with discipline.

Within our membership people have very different ideas about public policy solutions. That is by design. We aspire to the hard work of engaging across differences to build together. We choose connection over domination.

Think about it. Our individual choices are what matter. No public official, political party, or institution can or will make this change alone without us. They can lead, invite and teach. Or they can, as most seem to do today, incite more anger and more division.

We can choose to go against the grain. Find those with whom we disagree and do the difficult work of learning, sharing, and building. Together. The more intense the conflict, the more effort is required to build a common solution. This is the Braver Angels Way.

Let me close on the very personal, human impact on trying to do this work.

I can’t help but feel the strain. I am as stretched as I’ve ever felt, right now. I know you must feel variations of the same. For me, it is a daily (and sometimes hourly) battle to keep things in perspective, determine what is in my control, and act. My most effective aids right now are family, exercise and study routines, breathing practices, meditation, and think time. Find yours.

In these times, I find there is no replacement for this idea: keep on keeping on… put one foot in front of the other. Sometimes those steps are fast, sometimes we need to slow down (and I ask the same of you). Recognize the challenges, celebrate the victories big and small, give each other the grace these times require. Through it all, let’s keep our eyes on the vision of an America at peace with itself, where courageous citizenship is the norm.

I choose to pray. You may or may not have that practice. But I believe you’ll understand my intent: I pray for peace, wisdom, strength, courage, and patience. Then I get to work.

Walk with me. One foot in front of the other. Shoulder to shoulder.

It’s worth it.

I am so proud to be on this mission with you. Even, and especially, right now. Look for a series of convenings we will be leading with others in our sector.

— Maury Giles, CEO of Braver Angels

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In a moment of rising conflict over immigration, Braver Angels calls for dignity, accountability, and civic repair

Gabriella Timmis — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 17:04:50 +0000

“These are the times that try men’s souls.” Thomas Paine penned these words 250 years ago to inspire Americans at a low point in the Revolutionary War. We are at another low point now—this time fighting each other rather than a colonial ruler. I live in the Minneapolis area, where I am witnessing the tearing of the social fabric. The soul of Braver Angels is also being tried, with some dedicated members wondering if our mission is still relevant. They are bluntly asking, “Why keep talking to those people?” This is my written response as a cofounder of Braver Angels. I’ve also recorded a video where I speak more personally about what’s going on in Minnesota.

As a therapist, my job is to help clients do two things with powerful emotions: understand what they are feeling, and then act mindfully rather than react instinctively. Political stress is stirring up two main emotions—fear and outrage—and they feed on each other. Fear can lead to one kind of reactivity: shutting down and withdrawing. Outrage can lead to another kind: demonizing and lashing out. The alternative is hard but possible: thoughtful responses informed by our emotions but not directed by them. It means showing up with a non-anxious presence when others around us are escalating, cutting people off, and losing hope. It takes a special form of courage to keep engaging with people in our lives whose views appall us. Ernest Hemingway called courage “grace under pressure.” We live in a pressurized time, when courageous citizenship requires real emotional work.

So far, I’ve described how we can function psychologically in a national crisis. But what about social action?

I think of work for social change as happening in three ways: Resist, Replace, and Repair—three Rs. All are necessary, and none alone is sufficient.

Resist refers to organized efforts to publicly name serious social problems and confront leaders and institutions that create and reinforce them. Resist is about vigorous, sustained calls for change now. (“We Shall Overcome.”)

Replace refers to what comes next: concrete reforms and changes such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Resistance movements need a Replace agenda in order to be effective.

Repair refers to organized efforts to heal the social fabric that is inevitably torn by the turmoil and polarization of major social change—what Lincoln called binding up our wounds. (South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and closer to home, Braver Angels.)

I see all three Rs as essential for successful long-term social change. We have to name injustices. We have to enact concrete solutions. And we have to treat one another with respect while debating the changes—and after one side wins out against opposition. Unfortunately, the repair work is often neglected.

Consider one example from perhaps the most successful social movement in U.S. history: abolitionism in the 19th century. It resisted the institution of slavery and helped replace it through constitutional amendments. But after the Civil War, the work of repair and healing was tepid and ultimately abandoned by many leaders. We are still paying the price.

This framing helps me respond to those who call for Braver Angels to speak out about injustices and abuses of governmental power. If we support democracy, this argument goes, then to not publicly resist these assaults is at best timidity and at worst complicity. The time for talking to the other side is over. They are unreachable; the only thing left is to fight them. (This challenge is coming mostly from progressive Blues distressed by the Trump Administration, but I could imagine a time when it would come from conservative or populist Reds upset, say, with a Mamdani administration.) In effect, the call is for Braver Angels to join the resistance.

My response is threefold.

First, we should distinguish between Braver Angels as an organization and what individual Braver Angels members decide to do with their own efforts at social change. Some may feel called to step away from Braver Angels and focus on Resist. For them, this may be the right season for that choice.

Second, I don’t believe Braver Angels can effectively do Resist and Repair. If Braver Angels camps on one shore, we lose the cross-partisan trust that makes our work possible. Organizations seen as neutral on policy and politicians are best positioned to do the work of healing divisions and bridging divides. I ask: Is the nation better served by Braver Angels adding one more small voice to a resistance and losing our ability to Repair?

Third, somebody has to staff the Repair brigade. Resist often has no shortage of volunteers. Keeping contact through conversation—and feasible joint activities—is essential to the functioning of our democratic republic.

I believe Braver Angels has an opportunity to make a difference only if we stay in our distinctive lane—one we’ve become pretty good at. What’s more, ours is the long game beyond any political leader or party in power. The forces of polarization that brought us to this crisis moment are not going away soon. Our work, in the Hebrew phrase, is Tikkun Olam—repairing the world. It is a never-ending human endeavor. And it matters, because when the talking stops, the only alternatives are coercion and violence. I’m seeing that danger up close right now in Minneapolis, where local and national leaders have stopped talking, and escalation is overtaking us. I pray that the talking begins and the healing starts soon. We have real work ahead in Braver Angels—and I know we are up to it.

— Bill Doherty, Braver Angels co-founder

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Announcement: 2026 Braver Angels National Convention

Gabriella Timmis — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 15:46:31 +0000

The 2026 Braver Angels National Convention will be held from June 25th to 28th in none other than Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the birthplace of America, which will be ringing in its 250th anniversary just a week later.

In 2024, over 750 delegates—equally divided between Red and Blue—came to our convention in Kenosha, Wisconsin to restore hope in America. But 2026 will be different—it has to be. As we lead into our country’s Semiquincentennial, more than a thousand delegates from across the political spectrum will step up as leaders and step into courageous citizenship at a moment when our country needs it most.

America was founded by brilliant people who came together across debate, difference, and disagreement, to form a constitutional, representative democracy that has withstood civil unrest, economic depression, and war, and has remained the world’s greatest experiment in self-government: a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

But today, our country is in a moment of great need, and it’s time that we the people show our representatives, our fellow citizens, and ourselves what we really stand for. They say you don’t know you have a value until it’s tested. Well, this is our test. Will you answer the call?

In 2026, the significance of the Fourth of July, Independence Day, will be unlike any other in our lifetime. You have a chance to be a part of it the Braver Angels Way. Applications to become a delegate to the convention will open in the new year. If you sign up here, you’ll be the first to know about it.

We hope to see you in Philadelphia.

— Gabbi Kearns, Director of Communications

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Announcement: Citizen-Led Solutions

Gabriella Timmis — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 14:53:11 +0000

MAURY’S REMARKS

OPENING & THANKS

Good afternoon.

Thank you to the National Conference on Citizenship for convening us this year around the theme of Building Civic Resilience. This gathering has been, for me, a vivid reminder of how much creative energy is moving right now in the civic-renewal space.

And thank you to David for introducing Braver Angels’ new initiative, Citizen-Led Solutions, and to the panel of leaders who just shared their perspectives on letting citizens lead.

What struck me most about their reflections was not only the opportunities but also the honest acknowledgement of the challenges we face as a country in equipping people to lead and in strengthening what some of us have come to call “civic muscle.” Especially at this time with so much pain and hatred.

As Braver Angels’ new CEO, I’m still adjusting. It’s been I think 7 weeks. To be honest, it feels a bit like I was handed the playbook for “How to Heal America,” but when I was a third of the way through, I turned the page and read, alone on a blank page “You’ve got it from here.”

But that’s my learning curve. And I will learn from all we are doing together. I suppose we’re writing the rest of the chapters together.

It is a privilege to close this conversation – to step back and reflect on what these ideas mean for all of us, across this ecosystem, who care about the future of American democracy.

THE PROBLEM (& WE’VE SEEN IT BEFORE)

Heaven knows we don’t need another litany of statistics to prove we’re in a civic crisis. The events of the past week alone demonstrate the collapse of social trust and hatred present in some circles.

We know these patterns: rising polarization, declining trust in institutions, mistrust of the media, the spread of misinformation, and despair about whether democracy will survive. We are living the experience of accelerating political violence and the inability to have productive conflict.

I am from Utah.

I live 25 miles from UVU campus. My wife and four of our children have attended UVU. Each year it’s where our high school graduations are held. Last Wednesday, our nephew and his wife were at the Charlie Kirk event. My daughter’s friend was seated in the front row.

No matter your feelings about Charlie Kirk, his methods, or his words, each of those people observed the assassination of a young father engaging in open debate on a college campus. Those memories will not be forgotten.

I have other nephews and nieces who attended the same school in southern Utah as Tyler Robinson, the accused shooter. They and their parents are trying to process how someone from their town could move from online discussions to hatred sufficient to take the real-world steps to kill someone… for their words.

I think of the shooter’s parents… making the decision to help their son take responsibility for his actions.

But those actions are indicative of our crisis. We have allowed the narrative to be defined by conflict entrepreneurs, people who make money and gain power off our division.

To many Americans, our system feels distant, out of control, and, most importantly, something that we the people have nothing to do with.

But this is not true. We will not experience change until we take accountability for the reality in front of us. It only works for the industrial outrage complex when we participate in their scheme.

As Americans, more than anywhere else in the world, we have the power to shape the society we desire to live in and leave for our children.

It is worth remembering: this is not the first time America has lived through such fracture. At the turn of the 20th century, the nation was convulsed by the upheavals of industrialization, mass immigration, and stark inequality. Political machines and corporate monopolies dominated public life. Racial terror was codified into law in the South. Leading writers and thinkers as well as everyday citizens worried aloud that democracy was failing, that corruption and rancor had hollowed out the civic heart of the country.

And yet, history reminds us: that low tide did not mark the end of the American experiment. It marked the beginning of a new wave of renewal.

Ordinary citizens — not elites, not politicians, not professionals — stepped forward to build new civic institutions. Settlement houses, Rotary, the Scouts, the NAACP, 4-H, the League of Women Voters, the United Way. Things we now take for granted as institutions in the United States once began as fragile, scattered experiments. Critics at the time dismissed them as too small to matter. But they multiplied, scaled, and became the civic infrastructure that carried us forward for a century.

The lesson? Fragility is not failure. In fact, fragility is the natural first stage of resilience.

Let me return to Utah over the past week.

Within two hours of the assassination, a group of us, all Utahns, gathered on a call. We had become friends over the last 5 years through our work in the community. And we also happened to be involved in 7 different national organizations working on civic renewal and peacemaking.

We moved quickly. We crafted a message to our friends, families, and neighbors in Utah about the meaning of this moment and the imperative to act instead of react. Within 24 hours we built a website inviting people to Turn Toward each other and offering them easy access to all of the resources, tools, and upcoming events that could help people consider what to do in their own sphere of influence. And within 48 hours we were up at the Capitol building in Salt Lake with 100+ Utahns and the media releasing this resource and calling on citizens to take control of our own response as individuals, as families, as neighbors, as a state.

We presented simple, accessible, and effective resources for people. We were not promoting our respective organizations. We were acting in solidarity. We moved quickly.

The morning of the event our PR partners recommended we postpone because they had caught the shooter and the story was going to shift. But we knew the story Utahns needed and the story we wanted to shape. We continued, people showed up. No elected officials. Just citizens.

Now, there is a long road ahead for us in Utah. And for us in the United States of America. Make no mistake. What we are doing today, and everything we are about, is a counter-cultural movement in our time.

CITIZEN-LED SOLUTIONS & BRAVER ANGELS EMPHASIS

But that is the spirit behind Citizen-Led Solutions. To bridge the political divide in a way that cannot be ignored nor overlooked. My friend Manu Meel calls it “outrageously bridge build.” We call it courageous citizenship.

Braver Angels launched Citizen-Led Solutions — or as we call it, CLS — this year not as a departure from what we’ve done, but as a deepening of our mission. For nearly a decade, Braver Angels has been known for depolarization. Our work has touched thousands of lives and has proven that well-directed dialogue matters when it’s driven by energetic volunteers with good training.

But depolarization, powerful as it is, is not enough. If dialogue ends at understanding, people walk away hopeful but often still asking, “now what?”

CLS represents a new emphasis for Braver Angels in two ways:

First, we are infusing our depolarization activities with opportunities for citizen action. We want our training, debates, workshops, and discussions not just to bridge divides but also to spark collaboration on shared local challenges.

Second, we are doubling down on our strategy of building and equipping local Alliances — our 120+ chapters across the country— to become epicenters of civic renewal in their communities. Alliances are where Braver Angels members put dialogue into practice, and now, where they will also put collaboration into action.

Every Braver Angels activity is designed so that ordinary people like teachers, parents, students, retirees can run them — not civic professionals. We’ve learned that when local citizens lead, the work has deeper legitimacy and greater staying power.

LESSONS FROM HISTORY

If history rhymes, then here are two key lessons, among many others, that it teaches us:

First. Renewal begins locally, and multiplies nationally. Hull House started with one Chicago neighborhood. Rotary started with four friends. The NAACP started with a handful of organizers. Scale came later.

And, second. Resilience doesn’t just come from structures. It comes from practice.

Think of it as civic muscle. Like any muscle, civic muscle only grows by being used.

We grow stronger in self-government not by being led through exercises designed by others, but by lifting the weight ourselves — tackling problems together, improvising solutions, building trust rep by rep. Institutions can provide the gym, but people must do the training themselves.

TODAY’S CIVIC RENAISSANCE

That brings us to today. We have a choice. Is this the end of a dark chapter? Or is it the beginning of a much darker one?

I believe in the aftermath of, and even before, this string of assassinations, we are seeing the first signs of another civic renaissance.

We see them here today. This is our national week of citizenship. 238 years ago tomorrow, the framers of this American experiment signed this great document. Next year we celebrate 250 years from the moment it all started. This is our moment.

It is a choice. Our choice. Each American. Each of us here today.

Bridge-building efforts like Braver Angels, The Dignity Index, Living Room Conversations, and BridgeUSA are giving neighbors, students, and communities the tools to cross divides.

Deliberative democracy efforts — citizens’ assemblies, participatory budgeting — are putting residents in charge of setting priorities and allocating resources.

Dialogue-to-action initiatives like CLS, Convergence, and National Issues Forums are creating structures where citizens co-design solutions alongside local leaders.

Service corps, volunteer networks, and resilience hubs are giving people the chance to build together in tangible, practical ways.

Civic tech platforms like Democracy Works are amplifying citizen participation rather than replacing it with technocracy.

And common ground policy efforts like CommonSense American are helping Americans weigh in on solutions to crosspartisan issues and see them through to becoming the law of the land.

None of these are perfect. Many look boutique, scattered, and fragile. Some funders or policymakers dismiss them as marginal.

But that is exactly what critics said about settlement houses, scout troops, league of women voters and community chests in 1900.

If we’ve learned anything from history, it’s this: fragility is not a reason to doubt. It is a reason to invest.

THE CHALLENGING ROLE OF EXPERTS AND PROFESSIONALS

Now, let me address a reality many in this room grapple with: the roles of philanthropy, professionals, and institutions. They are indispensable. We cannot do this work without all three.

And yet, too often, even with the best intentions, they default to models that place citizens at the margins. Citizens are asked to participate in programs designed elsewhere, to “engage” with agendas crafted by experts, or to provide input into initiatives they don’t really own.

This is not because of malice. It’s because citizen-led efforts often look messy, hard to measure, and difficult to scale. Professionalized organizations, by contrast, look predictable, manageable, fundable.

But history also tells us when citizens are at the margins, civic renewal stalls. When citizens are at the center, civic renewal spreads.

The question is not: “How can institutions better lead people?” The question is: “How can institutions better support citizens to lead themselves?”

“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” echoes from the words in 1961 of a later assassinated US president.

INSPIRATION FROM AMERICA’S CITIZEN-CENTERED ETHOS

All of this rests on a deeper truth: American democracy has always been citizen-led.

Our founding promise is that sovereignty resides with the people. From the Declaration of Independence to the Progressive Era to today’s renewal, the through-line is the same: civic health is not handed down from above. It is generated by citizens themselves.

And that health depends on more than laws or policies. It depends on culture. The early 20th century civic renaissance worked not just because it built organizations, but because it built rituals and habits of belonging — badges, service days, pledges, community halls. These gave people a sense of identity, agency, and shared purpose. If we want civic renewal today, we must create modern equivalents that shape culture as much as they shift policy.

Theodore Roosevelt put it plainly in 1899: “The main source of national power and national greatness is found in the average citizenship of the nation.”

Local organization is what fascinated Alexis de Toqueville about America in 1831.
It is people who must lead. History calls them “ordinary” or “average.” At Braver Angels we know they are both courageous and capable.

CALL TO ACTION

So let me close with a call to action.

If we are serious about Building Civic Resilience, then our task is not simply to design better institutions, policies, or programs. Our task is to equip Americans to trust each other and to lead together.

Let us commit to making our work less about how institutions, professionals, and experts can better engage citizens — and more about how people can engage with each other to lead their communities and, together, our democracy.

That is what civic muscle means. It’s not something institutions give to people. It’s something citizens build by using it.

Like Sara from Oxford in one of our CLS case studies said about her community’s efforts to address affordable housing: “We own what we make.” And her neighbor, Lynn, offered this hope: “If you’re thinking you could do this in your community, you can.”

History tells us this is possible. The present tells us it is necessary. And the future will depend on whether we have the courage to trust our citizens — and ourselves — to lead.

Thank you.

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Braver Angels Statement on the Assassination of Charlie Kirk

Gabriella Timmis — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 21:25:59 +0000

September 10th was a devastating day for our nation. There are no words for the loss of Charlie Kirk. Our hearts are with his family and loved ones.

It’s on each of us to stop this dangerous cycle of mutual destruction. No matter where we stand on the political spectrum, here’s what we must do in the wake of this tragedy.

The immediate priority is to not escalate an already precarious situation. Do not throw fuel on the fire through attacks and counterattacks over responsibility for this act of violence. We’ve gotten ourselves into a deep hole. The first thing we must do is stop digging.

Second, we must tone down the apocalyptic rhetoric that our democracy will not survive the leadership or ideology of any one side. When the survival of the American experiment is at stake, violence can seem justified and even heroic. We must believe in ourselves that we can hold onto our democratic republic even amidst profound disagreement.

Third, we must use this moment to soul-search what we’ve allowed to happen in our political culture, from the national to the local level, and in our families and friendships. Polarization is a “We the People” problem, not just a “those politicians” or “those talking heads” problem. We have a role to play.

For years, we’ve unleashed bitter contempt on our fellow Americans who think, speak, and vote differently, creating a toxic cycle to which both sides contribute. Change begins with each of us examining how we see and think about those who hold views we believe are wrong. We must challenge the dominant cultural narrative that pits us in a war of good versus evil, tribe versus tribe. Then, we must demand the same of our leaders.

Together, we can define for this country what courageous citizenship means—modeling a constructive civic response that rebuilds trust and puts us on a path toward solving problems together. Now is the time. Our country depends on it.

This Sunday, September 14th from 6pm to 8pm EST, in the wake of the most high profile political assassination in our country since Robert Kennedy, Braver Angels, the Listen First Coalition, National Institute for Civil Discourse, Bridge USA, Common Sense American, One America, Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism, Numbers USA and many more, are uniting to reject our slide into contempt and violence and to ignite the movement to bridge the divide.

Join us at Dignity Over Violence: A Unified Civic Response

Your voice is key to the success of this gathering. There will be opportunity for you to contribute your thoughts to the vision we will refine together in this pivotal gathering for the future of our cause.

To hear more from our CEO Maury Giles, read his letter to our members here.

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Let’s Act Together – Model the Braver Angels Way

Gabriella Timmis — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 21:19:11 +0000

Before the events in Utah, today—September 11—was already a somber day of remembrance. Twenty-four years on, we honor the lives lost and the resolve that followed. That same resolve is what we need now.

We are all shocked by the assassination of Charlie Kirk yesterday. We are saddened—and moved to act—by the pattern of political assassinations and attempts over the last 14 months. We will avoid speculation and await official updates even as we care for one another and our communities.

How do we, as Braver Angels members, respond?

In caring for one another, we can acknowledge the grief and shock many of us are experiencing: Charlie Kirk was assassinated while openly debating people he disagreed with on a college campus. Some of our members admired his style and felt he spoke eloquently for them on the issues. Others found his approach polarizing and dangerous. Whatever your perspective, yesterday’s tragedy hits close to home for many of us.

It certainly hits close to home for me. I live 25 miles from the Utah Valley University campus. My wife and four of our children studied at this university. Every year, our children’s high school graduations are held on this campus. Friends and family were at the event live. It happened right here.

I know there may be some of us who feel there’s no longer any hope to reason with the other side—that we’ve crossed a line and there may be no way back.

Braver Angels stands for the idea that we each have a choice about how to respond: do I take one more step toward political violence, or do I take one step toward vigorous and respectful debate?

I can’t control what others do; I can only control how I respond.

Now more than ever, our country needs the courageous citizenship that Braver Angels—and the broader movement we’re part of with many other organizations—stands for:

We state our views freely and fully, without fear.
We treat people who disagree with us with honesty, dignity, and respect.
We seek to disagree accurately, avoiding exaggeration and stereotypes.
We look for common ground where it exists and, when possible, find ways to work together.

We all know this—we joined Braver Angels because we were inspired by these ideals. I was uplifted just this morning rereading the Braver Angels Way. This takes courage. We are choosing to act against the dominant cultural narrative of our day.

Now is exactly the time to stand for these ideals. If not us, who? If not now, when?

Take a concrete step toward courageous citizenship. Reach out to a friend, family member, neighbor, or co-worker who differs from you politically. Ask how they are doing and offer support. Listen first. Then affirm your conviction that we all have to work together to build a country without political violence.

For every person who feels our cause is hopeless, there are others who see Charlie Kirk’s assassination as a call to do something productive for our country. This is our time to step forward and show a better way.

Finally, recognize we are not alone. Leaders left to right are denouncing political violence and urging all of us to embrace reasoned and robust discourse.

“The best way to honor Charlie’s memory is to continue his work… Engage with each other, across ideology, through spirited discourse. In a democracy, ideas are tested through words and good-faith debate—never through violence. Honest disagreement makes us stronger; violence only drives us further apart and corrodes the values at the heart of this nation.” — Gov. Gavin Newsom
“My message to young people who are so impacted by Charlie Kirk: you’d make Charlie awfully proud if you continued fighting. But also if you fought in a way where at the end of the day, you can go have a cup of coffee with someone who you disagree with, and show that there’s a humanity to this important endeavor that we’re involved in.” — Matt Schlapp

Our country needs our braver angels in this hour. Choose dignity over division. Check on your people. Lower the temperature. Let’s lead—together.

With gratitude for your commitment,
Maury

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Meet Our New CEO, Maury Giles

Gabriella Timmis — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 22:12:52 +0000

We’re delighted to announce Maury Giles as the next CEO of Braver Angels.

Let us tell you a bit more about Maury and how we arrived at this exciting decision.

In March 2025, David Blankenhorn announced he was stepping down as President of Braver Angels after co-founding and leading our organization for nearly a decade.

Weeks later, we had the opportunity to hear from our members in a town hall about the future of our leadership. They told us what kinds of skills, qualities, mindsets, and experience they wanted to find in the next leader of Braver Angels.

They wanted someone who could galvanize people on the ground and motivate volunteers. Someone who was collaborative, agile, and understood our unique culture. Someone with a proven professional track record and experience in scaling organizations. Someone plugged in with political leaders across our country. Someone with wisdom. And so much more.

Could this be possible? Were we being realistic? One participant joked about whether we’ll be able to find this “walking Mother Teresa mixed with Dr. Martin Luther King mixed with Jesus Christ at a bargain rate.” She had a point: This is a significant role—not just for our organization, but for our country—and it demands a great deal from one individual.

During the search process, we partnered with a national executive search firm to scour our country looking for top leaders who could take on this role. Many of our members also recommended people in their own circle.

In total, we had over 400 applicants, which were narrowed down to the top 25. The Search Committee—a Red/Blue balanced group of volunteers, staff members, and a board member of Braver Angels—whittled that list down further to 13 individuals, all of whom were interviewed. These talented people were business leaders, civic entrepreneurs, government officials, military veterans, and more.

In the end, we found our next CEO because a veteran Braver Angels volunteer who leans Blue recommended a fellow Braver Angels volunteer who leans Red based on her experience working with him in Braver Angels.

“When I listened to [the Braver Angels] meeting about finding a new person for David Blankenhorn’s job,” Mary Thomas-Vallens told us early on in the process, “a Braver Angels member popped immediately into my mind: Maury Giles.”

She worked with him on several Braver Angels workshops, she explained, including co-moderating Common Ground Workshops with Republican and Democratic members of the Utah State Legislature. “I marveled at how he brought these elected officials together,” she said, “especially when they had shared that they had never had conversations with each other outside the legislative hall. They came, and the workshop was a true bridge-building event.”

So, Mary reached out to Maury about the CEO opening. Maury, who has been in the midst of a thriving career in the corporate world, listened and saw an opportunity to answer what he sees as a personal calling: joining all of us in taking Braver Angels’ collective work to its next chapter.

For those who haven’t yet met him, here’s what you should know: Maury Giles is a husband, a father of ten in a blended family, and a Red who now lives in Salt Lake City, UT. Maury doesn’t just understand the field—he comes directly from it. Volunteering with Braver Angels for five years, Maury has moderated Red/Blue workshops and led bipartisan legislative initiatives through Braver Politics.

Not only is Maury uniquely suited to our culture, but he also has the professional expertise needed to grow Braver Angels in size and impact. Maury spent two decades founding and scaling mission-driven organizations, building high-trust teams across partisan divides, and leading transformative Braver Angels workshops—bringing both the soul of a devoted volunteer and the strategic acumen we need to grow our movement.

As the Board said, “Maury’s appointment is more than a leadership transition; it’s a powerful statement of our determination to meet America’s challenges head-on.”

One last thing: We often say our volunteers are our engine, but in this search for our next leader, volunteers really played a critical role from start to finish. We shared our opinions about our next leader freely, fully, and without fear. Thanks to the wisdom and input of our volunteer leaders, we found someone we believe will enable us to meet the moment and gain even more momentum.

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I stopped talking to my dad because we voted differently

Gabriella Timmis — Sat, 15 Mar 2025 16:34:43 +0000

In 2020, I sent my dad a text: I told him I couldn’t talk to him anymore—not until at least the election was over. He wrote back just to say he was looking forward to talking to me again soon.

It was the thick of election season, and I was profoundly anxious. Like so many people, it had already been a hard year for me, and the instability of our country left me feeling genuinely afraid of what was to come.

In an effort to do something, I started working with an organization on an initiative called “deep canvassing,” which was aimed at persuading undecideds to vote for my preferred candidate. The work was emotionally draining but rewarding, and I’d often try out what I’d learned on the undecided voters in my life.

If only I could deep canvass my father.

My dad and I had always differed on politics, but this time, it felt personal. “If he really cared about me, he’d change his vote,” I thought. Every failed attempt to convince him only left me feeling more alienated.

After the election, my dad and I resumed talking. He never held those weeks of radio silence against me—he was just happy to get a text back.

In the months after the 2020 election, I found Braver Angels. In so many ways, it opened up my mind and fundamentally changed the way I think and talk about politics.

The first idea that radically shifted my mindset is that the goal of political conversations is to learn, not to persuade. When I stopped trying to convince people to agree with me, I suddenly had a lot more room to actually hear them out.

Now that I had the capacity to hear what they were saying, I realized that people are often more conflicted and complicated than I thought. By not putting people I disagree with on the defense, we could have more honest conversations. In these, we often found a lot of agreement.

The more I was able to productively disagree with people, the more I realized that I didn’t need them to agree with me in order for me to be okay. I found strength and peace in myself that left me feeling more empowered, even when the world felt scary and out of control.

And as for my dad, I learned that navigating politics in families is uniquely challenging. It’s not unusual for political differences to feel personal. In 2020, I measured my dad’s care for me with a single metric: his vote. However, in the years since, as my relationship with my dad has grown and changed, new thoughts started to emerge.

Would someone who didn’t care about me show up wherever, whenever I needed him? Would someone who didn’t care about me give me space while reminding me he’d always be there for me?

Without meaning to, my dad—just by virtue of being himself—complicated the narrative I had of him.

Four years after I fired off that text to my dad, he and I sat outside a polling place in Michigan to spread a different message. Here, on Election Day, we sat side by side to let people know that although we may vote differently, we’re committed to maintaining our relationship.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve heard from many people who are scared and hurting. And some may feel it’s not an option to reach across the aisle or reconcile with their relatives; their family dynamics may be more difficult, or their personal stakes in politics could be higher.

But it’s precisely because I’ve been given so much that I feel it’s my duty to bridge the political divide and reduce the growing level of contempt. To me, it’s the best way I know how to protect the country—and the people—that I love.

— Gabbi Timmis, Director of Communications & Marketing

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Vote on the political issue Braver Angels should take on

Gabriella Timmis — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 22:52:32 +0000

Shortly after the 2020 election, with millions of Americans questioning its integrity, a group of red and blue Braver Angels leaders asked perhaps the most important question we face: Can we rebuild trust across the political spectrum in the integrity of our elections?

In a time of acrimony, these leaders created hope. They organized Common Ground Workshops in 26 communities across the country, bringing together progressives and conservatives in equal numbers.

It worked. Their report, “We Trust US,” offers policymakers 23 actionable solutions to rebuild all Americans’ trust in our elections.

They didn’t do it by one side out-arguing or out-voting the other. Or by calling each other names. They did it by working together—doing the hard work of patriotic citizenship.

Now we’ll do it again, and we need your help.

Which issues today are tearing us apart? Where can working in the “Braver Angels Way” do the most good for our nation in this challenging moment?

You decide. We’ve nominated 12 possible issues. You’ll recognize every one.

We want you, our members, to choose four finalists—vote here—to go to our 2024 National Convention in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on July 27-29. The delegates in Kenosha—apply to become one here—will discuss and debate these four, narrow it down to two, and then pick one for a priority focus in the coming months.

Why? In a time of partisan gridlock, we are saying: “It doesn’t have to be this way.” In a time when so many of our political leaders don’t seem up to the task, we are saying: “Watch us.”

I am asking you to help us achieve this goal for our country. Vote right now on the issues you view as most important. And if you possibly can, come to Kenosha. Join us there. Create hope.

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What’s on your mind about the 2024 election?

Gabriella Timmis — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 22:40:35 +0000

Braver Angels began in response to the division that emerged during and after the 2016 election. As we approach the second presidential election since our founding, we’re asking ourselves: How can we best serve our community and those carrying out our mission on the ground?

Put simply, we want to help you navigate this upcoming election.

Whether you’re repairing a relationship strained by politics or helping your community come together to find cross-partisan solutions, we want to be a resource you can turn to in these coming months.

So, we’re hoping you’ll let us know:

What’s on your mind about the 2024 election?
If you could ask Braver Angels leaders—whether it’s Dr. Bill Doherty, Mónica Guzmán, John Wood Jr., or anyone else—any questions or for any advice about navigating the election, what would you ask them?
What can Braver Angels do, share, or create that would help you, your family, or your community during this time of uncertainty? Are there certain events you’d like to attend? Is there a how-to guide you’d love to read?

Many of our greatest ideas, insights, and inspirations come from you—our members and volunteers on the ground. Sharing your perspective will help us show up for you and grow our movement at a time when our country needs it most.

So, please respond to us directly if that works best for you. Or, check out this form if that works better. As always, it’s wonderful to be in this work with you. We’re really looking forward to hearing from you

The post What’s on your mind about the 2024 election? appeared first on Braver Angels.

Have you seen our Trustworthy Elections Report?

Gabriella Timmis — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 23:35:12 +0000

Conservatives and liberals agree on how to restore trust in our elections, according to our newly released report.

After the 2020 election, we wanted to see if we could bring people from across the political spectrum together to forge solutions to one of our country’s most contentious issues: trustworthy elections.

Since then, we’ve had 26 workshops with 194 evenly-balanced conservatives and liberals. Together, they found 727 unanimous points of agreement, which we’ve distilled into 23 solutions.

Some of the most surprising solutions include:

All states should implement no-excuse-needed absentee ballots
States should require a person to show voter ID when voting
No state legislature or elected or appointed (non-judicial) official should be able to overturn election results

This report could provide a blueprint for how to ensure conservatives and liberals trust and accept the outcomes of our elections. It shows—when you put everyday Americans across the political spectrum together in one room—we can find a way to move forward on some of our country’s most contentious issues.

How did it come together? With the work of volunteers on the ground. A special thank you to Reena Bernards, Bill Carberry, Larry Mayes, and Walt McKee for their leadership on this report.

It was presented to the nation at a live virtual fireside chat last night at 7pm ET.

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Could your story inspire more?

Gabriella Timmis — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 22:12:19 +0000

It’s about that time of year when things are coming to a close (at least for a week or two) and we’re looking back to reflect on the past twelve months.

Here at Braver Angels, we’re thinking about a few highlights, like the 2023 National Convention, the new website homepage, and the launch of A Braver Way podcast (hosted by yours truly).

And now, we want to hear from you: What impact did Braver Angels have on your year? Did you connect with people across the aisle in new ways? Did you speak at your first debate? Or did something about what we’re championing here help you move the needle in the right direction for your disagreements, communities, or relationships — even just a little?

If so, we invite you to take a quick moment right now and tell us your story.

Our volunteers on the ground — and the stories they carry — are the engine of our work. Whether you took a small step to repair a relationship hurt by politics or found yourself thinking, “I never thought of it that way” across a divide, sharing and circulating your stories is how we can all know that despite everything out there we’re pushing up against, despite all the odds against us, all the forces that want us to stay divided and afraid, the work we’re doing here matters. It’s making a difference. And nobody here is alone in doing it.

If you’re open to sharing how connecting with the people and ideas at Braver Angels made a difference in your life, please let us know here, and who knows? Your story might just help spark more.

But above all, we want to say thank you. Thank you for the incredible work you’ve done and the support you’ve given this past year. At its foundation, Braver Angels is, quite simply, a group of lots of different people who dare to work together to make a better, stronger, braver nation. We’re so grateful you’re a part of it.

Have a wonderful holiday season, everyone. And oh yes — happy new year.

2024, we’re ready for you.

The post Could your story inspire more? appeared first on Braver Angels.

Are we taking politics too seriously?

Gabriella Timmis — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 21:26:43 +0000

Almost every time my boyfriend Emmet and I get into an argument, he ends up making me laugh. He can’t help it—or so he says—he’s a born-and-bred Irishman, so dark humor is in his blood.

Usually when this happens—when I find myself fighting a smile—we end up forging a path through whatever conflict we’re entangled in. Suddenly the problem, though no less serious, feels like something we can take on together.

In the words of John Cleese, “A wonderful thing about true laughter is that it just destroys any kind of system of dividing people.”

In so many ways, humor is essential for our emotional, spiritual, and psychological well-being.

It can offer an entry point into saying hard things, and an opportunity to repair when they don’t come out quite right. It can diffuse tension and strengthen bonds.

At its core, humor reminds us that we’re human.

It’s no surprise, then, that it’s also distinctly missing from our political landscape.

But does it have to be?

A few months ago, my friend Brent Morden—Red co-Chair of the Braver Angels NYC Alliance—and I asked ourselves a question: Could we have a debate on a serious topic… and make it fun?

We decided to host it at the Comedy Cellar, a legendary comedy club in Manhattan where some of the most prolific comedians have performed. (Think: Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Robin Williams, Amy Schumer, Jon Stewart, and on, and on, and on…) We recruited our very own Luke Nathan Phillips to come up from Washington D.C. and serve as Debate Chair. And we brought nearly 150 New Yorkers together on a Wednesday night for a debate on “Resolved: Smash the Patriarchy!”

My stomach was in knots leading up to the debate. It was the kickoff event to launch our new alliance, and we’d never hosted a big, in-person event in New York City before. How was this about to go?

As one man gleefully exclaimed directly following the debate, “No one punched each other in the face!” He was genuinely impressed. “This is New York City, after all. That’s not always guaranteed!”

There were periods of tension during the night, to be sure—times when the knots in my stomach only tightened. But there were also moments when speakers took on the spirit of the venue and cracked a few jokes—the audience erupting into laughter.

And then, after it was all over—once we survived our first big test—we headed around the corner to the Olive Tree Cafe to break bread and grab beers together. Suddenly, two people who had just been challenging one another were now happily chatting about something entirely different.

Humor and politics can be a tricky thing. We take politics seriously because the impact it has on people’s lives can be gut-wrenching and profound.

But maybe it could do us some good not to take ourselves too seriously. Maybe we can find a way to listen to and even laugh with one another again.

For more on humor and politics, check out Jesters and Fools, a documentary featuring different comedians reflecting on the state of politics and political polarization.

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The numbers are in…

Gabriella Timmis — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 04:49:24 +0000

When people learn about Braver Angels, they might think it sounds great, but does it actually work? As the leader of the Braver Angels Evaluation Team, I’m excited to say that the numbers are in, and we can report that our workshops are proven to help depolarize Americans.

For the past few years, participants in our workshops have been asked to fill out pre- and post-evaluations, where they’re asked a range of questions, from how the event was run to how participants feel about those on the other side. Based on the data compiled from 2020-2022:

After participating in Braver Angels events or workshops, nearly 70% report having a positive view of the other political side.
- This view contrasts sharply with a 2022 Pew Research Center report, which said between half and two-thirds of Democrats and Republicans view the “other side” negatively—as close-minded, dishonest, immoral, and unintelligent.
After engaging with Braver Angels programming, those who identify as ideologically extreme (strongly liberal or strongly conservative) feel just as positive about the other side as those who identify as moderate.
80% of participants across five distinct workshops said they were able to find common ground with people on the other side of the political divide. The 1:1 Conversations were the highest rated, with 97% saying they were able to identify common ground with their partner.
Across demographics (i.e., age, race, ideology, gender, etc.), 75% of participantssaid they were likely to share something they learned with friends and family members, 84% of participants feel engaged during Braver Angels events, and 92% of participants said the Braver Angels workshop or event was well-run.
And finally, while our goal is not to change people’s views of the issues, after going through Braver Angels programming, across demographics, nearly 40% of participants re-evaluated a personal political view as a result of Braver Angels programming.

To dig more into the first data point, we used a basic measure of polarization, the “feeling thermometer,” where people select a number to describe how they feel about people with similar political views (ingroup) and people with different political views (outgroup). A “0” indicates the most unfavorable view of a group and “100” is the most favorable.

Before people participated in a Red/Blue workshop, they ranked their ingroup as 74 and their outgroup as 36. After they participated in the Red/Blue workshop, the respondents liked their own group slightly more (75) and the outgroup substantially more (54). This means, in the short term, participants of Braver Angels Red/Blue Workshops shifted their views of the other side from negative to slightly positive.

Additionally, we calculated the Relative Dislike and found it dropped significantly, from 38 to 21. This indicates that participants in this Red/Blue workshop decreased their polarization as measured on the feeling thermometer by 17 points. Even with our small sample, these results are statistically significant at the p>0.0017 level. Other polarization measures indicated similar results.

People often ask us if various demographic groups have different reactions to the workshops. Based on the data we have so far, we found no differences in the feedback that can be attributed to a person’s ideology, race, or gender. As stated above, we even looked at the difference between people who said they were on an ideological extreme (right or left) versus those who were more moderate. Again, we found both groups were similar in how they responded to questions such as “How comfortable (or less estranged or angry) do you feel with those on the other side of the political divide?” or “How fully did you participate in today’s events?”

The key takeaway from these findings is that Braver Angels programs appear to work for people across the ideological spectrum and in different demographic groups. The only slight difference we found was that men may tend to prefer attending debates over other events.

We are excited to continue our analysis of Braver Angels workshops and events, both to improve what we are doing and to share with others effective ways we can bridge the partisan divide in our country. And if you’re looking to learn more about our impact, check this out!

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Our new homepage is live!

Gabriella Timmis — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 03:39:43 +0000

Here at Braver Angels, we often talk about the Braver Angels Way, which is a list of guiding principles that inform the way we do our work. It includes statements such as:

We state our views freely and fully, without fear.
We treat people who disagree with us with honesty, dignity and respect.
We welcome opportunities to engage those with whom we disagree.

Following the Braver Angels Way doesn’t only count when we’re in a workshop, at a debate, or attending an alliance meeting. It matters in everything we do. So when we decided to redesign our website, we knew we needed a well-balanced team of Reds, Blues, and Others to work on it together.

>> Check out: our new homepage!

In June, we brought together four Reds, four Blues, and two Others from across the organization—and the country— to design a homepage that would enable visitors to get more involved in our movement, whether they’re coming to the site for the first time, or have been a part of Braver Angels for years.

Within our team, we had people specifically focused on ensuring our language is balanced, our user journey is intuitive, and our homepage reflects America. We looked internally for insights we could glean, and referred to reports such as the Red Research Project, which goes deep on the perspective of Reds within Braver Angels and beyond.

But above all, we used the Braver Angels Way to have hard conversations and honest debates about what’s needed in this moment. We all came with our own perspectives and backgrounds—including an arborist in Vermont, a teacher in Iowa, and a mom of two young kids in Washington—but that was the point. Building a team of people with sincere differences made our work better and stronger, and we’re so grateful we got a chance to do it together. (Psst—scroll down to the bottom of the homepage to get a look at our team!)

So, whether you’re hoping to learn about our movement, build a new set of skills, or volunteer and take action, please check out our new homepage, and let us know what you think! We’ll continually be updating this page and redesigning more pages throughout our site, so your feedback will be critical to our success.

And finally, if you’re looking to learn more about the Braver Angels Way, we know just the place to find it.

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We won’t forget what happened in Gettysburg

Gabriella Timmis — Tue, 11 Jul 2023 23:45:07 +0000

How can we even begin to describe this past week?

On Wednesday, nearly 700 delegates — equally divided between Red and Blue — gathered in Gettysburg at the 2023 Braver Angels Convention. We came together to bridge the partisan divide, bring a spirit of goodwill to our politics, and spark a movement that’s larger than our organization alone.

It was hard to pull off.

We leaned on a small, scrappy staff and a dedicated group of volunteers who put everything they had into making the convention happen.

And then, it did.

Credit: Jason Minick

Delegates checked in — sometimes in groups as large as fifty to a hundred — and made their way to the dorms, where they’d be staying for the next three nights. Volunteers who worked together on Zoom for the past three years embraced as old friends. And people from across the country — some of whom were just getting to know Braver Angels — forged deep, meaningful friendships with folks they never would’ve encountered in their day-to-day lives.

It was absolutely electric.

Credit: Jason Minick

Representative Dean Phillips (D-MN) called Braver Angels members his “heroes,” and Governor Spencer Cox (R-UT) committed to elevating our work in his role as National Governors Association (NGA) Chair. We explored big topics, such as Christian nationalism with Hunter Baker and Dan Darling, Black America with Tavis Smiley and Ian Rowe, polarization and propaganda with Jonathan Rauch, and how to handle being triggered with Luis Mojica. And we sang and danced together, as our Artist-in-Residence Gangstagrass beautifully combined hip-hop and bluegrass to bring everyone in the audience to their feet.

Credit: Jeff Sevier

And then, on Saturday, we all came together to decide on our platform, First Principles of the Civic Renewal Movement, which will inform our trajectory in the year ahead. We heard from Braver Angels volunteers and leaders alike about what they appreciated — and what they wanted changed — in our platform. And after much deliberation, we ended up passing it by a vote of 265 to 1, with 18 abstentions.

Credit: Jeff Sevier

“Bridging the partisan divide is hard — sometimes really hard — but when we do it, magic happens.“

After all that, we can only be left feeling wiped out and full of gratitude.

There’s no denying the amount of energy we felt — and we hope everyone felt — over those four important days. For the past couple of years, we’ve been talking and writing about building a movement, but now, thanks to everyone who was there, we began to experience it.

So, thank you to everyone who traveled far and wide to make this convention — and those who took the extra distance outside their comfort zones. Bridging the partisan divide is hard — sometimes really hard — but when we do it, magic happens.

Now, the real work begins. Whether you were at the convention or not, we’re challenging you to Rise for America and join our national campaign for civic renewal. More to come on that soon, and stay tuned for the Convention videos!

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The ‘peculiar and lonely’ experience of running for office as a uniter

Gabriella Timmis — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 17:33:46 +0000

Greg Henningsen walked into his local Senate convention as a first-time delegate. In a matter of hours, he was – much to his surprise – nominated and endorsed to be a candidate in an election for the Minnesota House of Representatives. There, he was set up with a team of four to run his campaign. By the following month, they had all resigned.

Greg never dreamed of running for office. “I’m a construction worker,” he said. “I’m not a politician at all.” But the divisive political climate motivated him to get involved and become a delegate. “Politics seem to be as bad as they’ve been in my life and I’m at a point where I have the time to do this,” he said. “Those two things collided and there I was.”

Prior to the convention, he had only just begun engaging in politics by participating in a relational organizing training and doing some volunteer work for a school board candidate. But after Minnesota was redistricted, and his area became a Republican stronghold, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party – Minnesota’s equivalent to the Democratic Party – needed a candidate to run. At the convention, they asked Greg if he would do it. “I had to work my way through disbelief,” he said. But he was up for the challenge.

After being nominated, one of his first calls was to Rick Hotchner, a Red in Braver Angels who Greg refers to as a “mentor” despite their differing political perspectives. Through Rick, Greg learned about Braver Politics – Braver Angels’ initiative to depolarize politics and rebuild it on a foundation of trust, citizenship, and good-will. Rick’s objective was to help Greg share the Braver Angels message and model his campaign in this spirit, so he encouraged Greg to sign the Pledge for Civility drafted by Braver Angels leaders in Minnesota. By signing it, candidates are required to: focus on their own campaigns, avoid exaggerated disagreement and personal attacks, treat all citizens with respect, prioritize people over interest groups, extend good will and conciliation to their opponent and those who did not vote for them, recommit to these principles should they fail, and forgive others when they fall short of these standards

Running for office would be his opportunity to show people how to make politics about “relationship building and doing government in a different way.”

From that point on, it was clear Greg wouldn’t be a typical candidate. His focus wasn’t on relentlessly pushing his party’s platform or disparaging his opponent. Instead, he had another message: Politics don’t have to be so polarized. Running for office would be his opportunity to show people how to make politics about “relationship building and doing government in a different way,” he said.

Greg first tested his message in an unexpected area: “I went to Trump country.” There, on a beautiful spring Saturday, in one of the most rural areas in his district, Greg knocked on door after door. “I was having great conversations with people who would never vote for a Democrat,” he said. But whether or not he won them over wasn’t the point. “I was there to learn.” And he did. “Since then, I have had plenty of opportunities to talk to Republicans – I have talked to them just as much as I have talked to people I agree with – and I still lean on what I heard that day.”

While Greg wasn’t focused on winning over staunch Republicans, his message of depolarization has been met with skepticism by even those within his own party. At his first campaign event, he walked into a packed house. “All the candidates in the district were there,” he said. Each person would have a chance to go up to the podium and make their case. “When it was my turn to speak, all I talked about was Braver Angels,” he said. Suddenly, he was on a roll. “I got some hoots and hollers – I am not a public speaker, but I was really enjoying shouting from the rooftop about Braver Angels.” Then, he got a look from one of the leaders within the DFL Party signaling him to cut it off. “After I finished, one of the local political directors told me he was going to help me because that seven and a half minutes spent talking about Braver Angels was about seven minutes too long.”

It’s complicated balancing the party’s priorities and your own personal platform – and Greg understands the need to tow the line. “I know my place,” he said. “The Democratic Party needed someone to run and my role is to keep the machine moving forward.” In many ways, he does. When you check his website and see where he stands on the issues, he’s reliably Blue; he writes about protecting the LGBTQ+ community and whether Critical Race Theory is being taught in K-12 schools (“It is not”). He also calls the rollback of Roe v. Wade “heartbreaking” and has a Land Acknowledgement that starts with, “We live on Dakota land.” At first glance, he might appear to be a run-of-the-mill progressive, but there’s more to him.

“They were hammering me on the issues, and I said the issues aren’t as important to me as the process.”

“I am with the DFL platform top to bottom,” he said. “But that’s not what allows me to be authentic and honest and tell my story.” And therein lies the friction between Greg and the party whose ticket he’s running on. When getting advice from people within the DFL, “their whole mission was to get me straightened out on a path that could earn them a win,” Greg said. “They are hard-working and very passionate about turning this district Blue, but they were hammering me on the issues, and I said the issues aren’t as important to me as the process.” Instead of just talking about what’s wrong, Greg would rather work together to make it right.

So, where exactly does that land him on the political spectrum? It depends on who you ask. “I have been accused of being moderate, so we have to define moderate. Yes, I am moderate because I am not entrenched. When I am elected to the House, and I am sitting on committees with Republicans, I vow to create relationships with them,” he said. “But I am not moderate at all in the world I want. I want it all – healthcare for all, public schools fully funded – but you can’t just snatch it. Even though I want it all, I am willing to be patient.” While most politicians are promising to be the change, Greg acknowledges the change he wants will likely never happen in his lifetime.

It’s yet to be seen whether that’s enough to inspire voters. As for those within the DFL, they remained skeptical about him campaigning on a message of cross-partisan collaboration. So, his team quit. “They told me they were all resigning and wished me good luck,” he said. “It took me awhile to wrap my head around it – I still haven’t completely processed it.”

“If it drops out of favor to be polarized and it becomes cool to collaborate, then we can change it.”

But Greg isn’t resentful; he understands why his campaign isn’t what most experienced politicos may be used to. “One of the guys said this is a ‘theory’ and you can’t run on a theory,” he said. “But when I am talking to regular people I get so pumped up. Disregard the furthest 15% on either side and take 70% from those in the middle and I get nothing but head bobs. They hear what I am saying.”

Time will tell when and if the political machine will catch up, but Greg remains optimistic. “It’s not going to be easy – it will be hard – but eventually, we will get there,” he said. “People have all the control. If it drops out of favor to be polarized and it becomes cool to collaborate, then we can change it. Politicians want to get elected – they will conform.”

No matter the outcome in the general election, Greg says this campaign has been a “journey” that will forever change his life. He’s both personally and politically ventured into spaces he never would’ve anticipated – from an agriculture roundtable to learn about farmers’ needs to a transportation meeting with the Dakota County Commissioner to a six-week program called Connecting in Conflict, which he took to better manage the inevitable turbulence of the campaign. “There’s no going back to the Greg before that April day,” he said.

As he nears the end of the election, Greg will be finishing with a “ragtag team with no experience.” But they’re with him for the reason that matters most: they believe in his message of depolarization. “I am running a pretty shabby campaign because we don’t have money or experience,” he said. “I am a total outsider even within my own group – it’s a peculiar and lonely space to be running as a uniter.” But Greg knows he isn’t alone. “When I have a hard time finding volunteers to help me door knocking, it’s the people I met through Braver Angels I reach out to.”

As an organization, Braver Angels focuses on helping candidates commit to running on a message of depolarization – not endorsing them or getting them elected. Still, Greg believes this community could be the key to finding future candidates to run and connecting them to individuals on the ground who can support their campaign. “That will mean working outside of your district and putting second your policy issues,” he said.

Greg’s seven-month-long journey will soon be coming to a close. But despite the people who have come and gone, he said he’s appreciative of where he’s landed and hopeful about what’s to come. “What do I have left? What I have left is the Braver Angels people,” he said. “They understand what is most important to me.”

For more information about Braver Politics, go here. To read more of my stories, go here. If you want to send me a story idea, email me at gtimmis@braverangels.org.

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How innovation and scrappiness help a North Carolina alliance serve their community

Gabriella Timmis — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 20:51:00 +0000

In 2017, a largely unknown group – then called Better Angels – chartered a bus tour of the United States to facilitate conversations between people on the opposite sides of the political spectrum.

Around this time, a group of parishioners from the Community Church of Chapel Hill Unitarian Universalist had been facilitating meetings called Sanctuary for Dialogue. One day, Laura Gilliom – a member of this group – was listening to Indivisible on NPR and heard about the bus tour. When she told her church group about it, they were immediately interested in getting involved. Steve Warshaw, a parishioner and now Braver Angels state coordinator for North Carolina, even reached out and offered to house the Braver Angels co-founders David Blankenhorn and David Lapp, as well as Ciaran O’Connor, as they traveled through North Carolina.

“Living with the Davids and Ciaran for two days sold me,” Steve said. “I appreciated hearing about their commitment and solutions-oriented approach to depolarize.” Then, that same week, Dr. Bill Doherty – the third co-founder – unexpectedly came to their church for Sunday mass and even more people were sold. “It was serendipitous that it happened at the right time for us,” Steve said.

Laura – who now serves as the Blue Co-Chair for theBraver Angels Alliance of Central NC – agreed. “It made a difference that we were involved in early days and saw they were making it up as they were going along,” she said. “It gave us the confidence to come up with new ideas and just go for it.” And they have – from writing letters of gratitude to first responders, to co-authoring a bipartisan letter to the editor in The News & Observer, to piloting a program called Braver Discussions, which are informal yet semi-structured discussions about a particular political issue. This alliance is willing to experiment to see what sticks and they’re scrappy enough to ensure their visions come to life. “We are kind of opportunistic,” Steve said. “We can do just about anything Braver Angels offers.”

“It made a difference that we were involved in early days and saw they were making it up as they were going along. It gave us the confidence to come up with new ideas and just go for it.”

Most notably, they’ve been working with state and local politicians in North Carolina to put together a new type of town hall – first created by Charles Heckscher, a sociologist and the director of the Center for the Study of Collaboration in Work and Society at Rutgers University.

Here’s how it works: first, they identify one Republican elected official and one Democratic elected official – typically two people who have a strong working relationship – to have an initial conversation about an issue they’d like to explore, such as education or transportation. Then, once they choose a topic, they invite people from their community to register for the town hall. When registering, participants will identify whether they lean Red or Blue and rate how strongly they feel about the issue. Using the survey instrument Polis, participants can also see policy solutions that have been proposed, vote on which they think are the most important, and even suggest their own.

“Our town halls show people from either side of the political divide that they can work together.”

When it comes to the day of the town hall, participants from across the political spectrum gather together in an orientation so they can get a briefing on how the town hall will go. Then, the organizers identify the top three policy solutions with the most bipartisan support and organize participants into breakout groups – each focused on discussing one of the solutions. This way, participants go into the town hall knowing where there’s the most common ground. After the participants have had an opportunity to discuss and share their various perspectives, the town hall officially begins with the two elected officials joining their constituents to have a candid conversation about the best bipartisan solutions for the chosen issue.

These town halls have proven to be an asset to elected officials and constituents alike. “The legislators get to hear directly from their constituents and share potential opportunities or challenges with particular solutions,” Steve said. “And constituents really appreciate talking to elected officials, hearing feedback, asking questions, and learning about any progress already being made on the issue.”

While it’s great if there’s energy mobilized around a particular solution, that isn’t the main goal of the town halls. “Showcase issues wind up in the media and give people the impression local government doesn’t do much, but our town halls show people from either side of the political divide that they can work together,” Steve said. Just like any other Braver Angels program, town halls allow people with different opinions to sit next to one another, learn from each other’s life experiences, and better understand how they found their way to their perspectives. “The outcome is more about principles that are agreed on than policies,” Laura said.

“We’re just a group of people who work together, respect each other, and share a common purpose to leave the world better than we found it.”

The success of theBraver Angels Alliance of Central NC is driven by people who have taken on leadership roles throughout the organization. “We have people who work at the national level on debates, we have people on the development team from our alliance,” Steve said. “We really have an outstanding group of people here making strong contributions to Braver Angels.” One person, in particular, has had an indelible impact. “Our alliance is very fortunate to have Steve,” Laura said. “He makes things happen.”

“Sometimes the ideas are good, sometimes they’re not so good,” Steve joked. “We’ve pushed the envelope a little bit – particularly with developing new workshop ideas – and had to negotiate with the powers that be in order to have quality control and ensure it’s a positive Braver Angels experience. But that is what we do.” And they do it, above all, for the sake of their community and their country. “We’re just a group of people who work together, respect each other, and share a common purpose to leave the world better than we found it,” Steve said. “To me, that is the most gratifying part.”

For more information on Braver Angels alliances and how to get involved, go to this link. To learn more about town halls, go to this link. To suggest more stories I could report from the Braver Angels community, send me a note at gtimmis@braverangels.org.

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How a workshop in Michigan helped politically-divided strangers connect on something deeper

Gabriella Timmis — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 16:55:34 +0000

On a Friday morning in the middle of spring, fifteen people drove across Michigan to attend our state’s first official Red/Blue Workshop in the little town of Alto, strategically chosen as a rough midpoint between the populous southeast and west sides of the state. I was among them.

I woke up at the crack of dawn in my childhood bedroom – my temporary refuge as I wrapped up graduate school finals – and prepared myself for the road trip ahead. I’d been the field reporter for Braver Angels since January but had yet to attend the organization’s premier workshop. It felt right to do it while I was back home amongst fellow Michiganders.

The workshop was first proposed in December when a handful of Michigan-based Braver Angels leaders were in a steering committee meeting, exploring ideas for the year ahead. Vince Boileau, a Red from Holland, Michigan, pitched an in-person Red/Blue Workshop. David Joseph, the Blue state coordinator from Southfield, Michigan, agreed to work with him on it, and momentum gradually built from there.

“Vince became the fire who got us going, ‘okay, how can we do this?’ instead of, ‘why can’t we do this?’”

But it wasn’t easy at first. “There were so many obstacles,” Sarah Brabbs, one of the moderators for the workshop, said. “Bringing together different people with different beliefs and vulnerabilities – especially during COVID – felt insurmountable.” Luckily, they had an engine. “Vince became the fire who got us going, ‘okay, how can we do this?’ instead of, ‘why can’t we do this?’”

Lingering uncertainty around the trajectory of the pandemic eliminated many potential locations for the workshop, but the organizers were committed to making it work. Eventually, they found the perfect venue at Wildwood Family Farms, but it exceeded their allocated budget. “We decided to pony up and cover the extra costs ourselves,” David said. “My position was: if we believe this is necessary, we will do what we need to do to make this happen.” And they did.

Participants started trickling in ten minutes before the workshop began and took their designated seats: Reds on one side, Blues on the other. As we made our introductions, we realized how many of us had taken the day off from work and driven hours across the state to be there. Usually, people go out of their way to avoid strenuous political conversations, but together, we committed an entire day to it.

For our first activity, we broke out into Reds and Blues and discussed the most common stereotypes of our side. Then, we had to dig into why they’re not completely accurate while also addressing their kernel of truth – something you might never hear in a typical political discussion. Since we began the workshop by confronting and deconstructing these labels – rather than slinging them at one another – we were able to take the power out of them and move on.

From there, we participated in the fishbowl exercise, which had Reds sit in a circle, with Blues observing from the outside, while the moderators asked them questions about what’s at the core of their political beliefs. After that, the two groups switched, and the Blues shifted into the speaking role while the Reds listened. Then, we separated into Red/Blue pairs to share what we learned about the other side and whether we found anything in common. It was a cathartic and unusual experience; everyone had an opportunity to open up and speak from the heart about their perspectives.

“I had goosebumps and felt like, ‘this is it.’ It gave me hope for the days when you read the news and humanity is falling to pieces around you.”

We then gathered around picnic tables and happily ate lunch together before transitioning into the final stage of the workshop: the questions exercise. For this portion, we broke off into two groups – each half Red and half Blue – to gain clarity about each other’s opinions. My group started going deep into a discussion about abortion. As we shared our opposing beliefs, rising tension took the place of the light, airy conversation we were having just moments before. When I strained to articulate my position – and why I disagree with the people sitting across from me – I felt my stomach flip, churn and tighten and a flush of embarrassment washed over me; “I work with Braver Angels,” I thought to myself. “I should be better at this.”

As time progressed, we shifted into a discussion about guns and then finally, about race. By then, the heat had settled in, the conversation was moving faster, and I was asking questions with more urgency. But it never got out of control; everyone remained respectful and engaged – hearing each other out, even when it felt uncomfortable to do so. The words “productive zone of disequilibrium” – a concept I learned about in one of my classes – flashed in my brain and I remembered that sometimes, a certain degree of distress is required for people to learn.

Once it was over, and we had successfully ridden out the wave of discomfort, David, who had been listening in as a moderator, told us how much the discussion about race meant to him as a Black man. “There was an earnestness and sincerity in the questions and reflections,” he said. “I thought to myself: who would we be as a nation if we had more of that? If our lawmakers could do that? If we could ask those questions and not be offended? It was a special moment for me.” Hilary Young, the other moderator in our discussion, agreed. “I had goosebumps and felt like, ‘this is it,’” she said. “It gave me hope for the days when you read the news and humanity is falling to pieces around you.”

“It’s so much harder to hate someone to their face. The human experience just prevents you from disliking them.”

After the workshop, on my drive back east, I tried to take in the experience: the people, the conversations, the feeling that we were doing something so simple – listening to each other – yet so uncommon. But still, I was struggling to know what exactly to make of it. Did we just do something momentous? Or was it simply a drop in the bucket? Instead of having any immediate breakthroughs or takeaways, the word “home” just kept swirling around my brain. In the weeks after, as I continued to process what happened and heard from others about their experience, I came to realize why.

I called Vince – the “fire” behind the workshop – to find out why he was so determined to do it in person. One of his main motivators, he told me, was to be an antidote to the worst of social media, which often curates outrage and hatred between strangers divided by politics. “A face-to-face context disrupts that anonymity,” he said. “It’s so much harder to hate someone to their face. The human experience just prevents you from disliking them.” It’s even harder to hate someone within the format of Braver Angels workshops, where the explicit goal is to learn from – rather than convince – one another. “These workshops teach you a way of being present and showing up in the world,” he said.

“I love the fact we’re turning politics on its head, tearing it apart, and rebuilding it in a whole new way.”

Most of the time, we’re operating in our own bubbles, and even when we have cross-partisan relationships, there are so few spaces where we can actually hash out our perspectives in a way that brings us closer together instead of further apart. But the Red/Blue workshops are different. “If the political world is a wild zoo, then this is a conservation center where it’s intentional,” Sarah said. “It’s like another galaxy of conversations.” Hilary agreed. “We’re turning politics on its head, tearing it apart, and rebuilding it in a whole new way,” she said. “We have psychologists and family therapists who are getting to the root of us as humans – how we learn and what makes us tick.”

And that’s what makes the difference. For years, our country’s all-consuming political conflict has made it harder for us to recognize each other’s humanity. In some cases, it’s even alienated us from those we love most in the world. But Red/Blue workshops challenge participants to go beyond politics and see each other as people, giving us an opportunity to connect on something deeper.

This connection came at a time when I needed it most. Like so many people, the past few years had worn on me, and I was struggling to rebuild my confidence. Most days, I felt deeply unsettled, like I was operating out of my own skin. But on that Friday, in the middle of spring, I finally started feeling more like myself. As I sat in the Red/Blue workshop, I grappled with our country’s most complicated issues and listened to my fellow participants do the same. And there, in a town I’d never been to before, surrounded by people I’d never previously met, I felt closer to that word I couldn’t get out of my head: “home.”

To sign up for or learn more about Red/Blue Workshops, go to this link. To suggest more stories I could report from the Braver Angels community, send me a note at gtimmis@braverangels.org.

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A Red and a Blue walk into a workshop. Can they find common ground on a controversial issue?

Gabriella Timmis — Fri, 22 Jul 2022 14:28:28 +0000

Just a day after one of the most controversial and consequential Supreme Court decisions – Roe v. Wade – was overturned, eight Reds and eight Blues from across Massachusetts and New Hampshire gathered together in a Boston College classroom to see if they could find common ground on another hot-button issue: how to ensure trustworthy elections.

Over the course of four hours, they engaged in four different activities. First, there was a “fishbowl exercise,” during which Reds and Blues took turns gathering in the center of a circle to share their personal experiences and what was at the heart of the issue for them. People spoke about mail-in ballots, voting machines, and the role of the media. Then, they broke off into Red/Blue pairs to talk about solutions they would be open to, which allowed them to explore the confines of agreement. Next, Reds went into one room and Blues went into another, where they separately worked to find values, concerns, and solutions to which both sides could agree. Before coming back together, there had to be unanimous agreement within the Reds and within the Blues about their side’s proposals.

Finally, they came back and shared their ideas with each other and went through an elimination process, during which any Red participant and any Blue participant could cross out a proposal on the opposite side if they didn’t agree – no explanation needed. At the end, they returned to what’s been crossed out – such as requirements about voter ID – to see if they could debate and forge an agreement. If not, it wasn’t included in the final common points of agreement.

The Common Ground Single Issue Workshop was developed in 2019 as an outgrowth of Braver Angels’ signature Red/Blue Workshop, which is designed for Reds and Blues to better understand one another. “Instead of just getting to know each other – which can be step one – people want to go further and focus on a single issue,” John Schwenkler, head of Braver Angels’ workshop development team, said. Having a narrow focus allows Red and Blue participants to dive deep into an issue, but it’s the structure – developed by Reena Bernards, a Braver Angels leader – that keeps everyone on task and able to have a productive dialogue.

Reena, who has been moderating Braver Angels workshops since 2017, developed the Common Ground Workshop after a group in Grants Pass, Oregon asked her to do one strictly on abortion. “The reaction from participants is similar to other workshops: ‘We aren’t as different as we thought,’” Reena said. “I wanted to bottle that hope and turn it into something actionable.” Today, Common Ground Workshops are happening across the country – and they’re igniting a spark within these communities. “There’s a group in El Sobrante, California that did one on homelessness,” Reena said. “They went from a Common Ground Workshop to a town hall where they invited local politicians and shared their solutions.”

“By the end of the workshop, I was backing up positions of the opposite side. I absolutely did not see that coming when I came in.”

Back in the Boston College classroom, Jacob Bombard, a Blue participant, said he was gearing up for Battle Royale. “I had all my talking points ready,” he said. “Especially since it was the day after the Roe V. Wade decision – I have a daughter – I was skeptical of my own ability to be civil.” And then, something changed. “By the end of the workshop, I was backing up positions of the opposite side,” he said. “I absolutely did not see that coming when I came in.”

So what happened? “Whenever anyone has a political argument, the scope of that argument gets broad very quickly. It becomes about ideology rather than the mechanics of a specific issue,” he said. “If you keep the scope of the argument narrow, that provides a pathway for you to come up with solutions. And when the other side is asking for a compromise, ask yourself in all earnestness if we can accomplish this in a way that doesn’t conflict with my beliefs, and if there is, then you’ve found a way to compromise.”

“When you are in a room with a person, you see them, you’re listening to their beliefs. It’s much easier to understand where they’re coming from than 140 characters on Twitter.”

State Representative Lenny Mirra, a Red participant, is well-versed in debating specific political issues, but he’s not used to how productive the process can be. “Just think about how legislators have such a hard time coming up with voting reforms and we did it in a matter of hours – and this was with people from both sides of the aisle,” he said. “This methodology shows we have a lot of common ground and agree on a lot of things but legislatures don’t work that way so getting this done [in government] is hard to do.”

The agreed-upon solutions included proposals such as a transparent auditing process and each state providing polling places based on population to prevent long wait times. As for concerns, there was one clear commonality from the beginning. “Both sides immediately jumped on the idea that the media is doing such a horrible job at dividing us – especially social media,” Lenny said. “You’re a lot bolder sitting on your living room couch. You’re less likely to spout off or to be insulting face to face.”

Jacob agreed – pointing out that this workshop is the antidote to social media. “When you are in a room with a person, you see them, you’re listening to their beliefs,” he said. “It’s much easier to understand where they’re coming from than 140 characters on Twitter. I worry if my kids don’t have these in-person social interactions then our interactions online will become the norm for how we speak to one another.”

“It was an emotional moment for me. I felt like she saw me as a person.”

Breaking off into Red/Blue pairs drove this point home for him. While he and his Red counterpart are two different people, with two opposing beliefs, they were able to forge a meaningful connection. “It was an emotional moment for me,” he said. “I felt like she saw me as a person.” Had they only interacted on social media, this likely wouldn’t have been the case. “I might’ve expected we would hate each other,” he said. But instead, “it was just a very humanizing experience.”

As for Reena, she has high hopes for what these workshops could do for our country. “I have visions of people being able to take the agreements and go do speaking engagements with Red and Blue speakers at churches and community groups – lobbying politicians to say, ‘This is what you need to work on,’” she said. “I have visions of people taking these Common Ground Workshops and turning them into actions – that’s the future of it in my mind.”

To sign up for or learn more about the Common Ground Single Issue Workshops, go to this link. To suggest more stories I could report from the Braver Angels community, send me a note at gtimmis@braverangels.org.

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‘If we could get past this issue we could talk about almost anything’: Here’s how the Jessamine County Alliance dove into a heated issue

Gabriella Timmis — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 16:28:12 +0000

It started with an election.

In 2018, Dr. Carolyn Dupont, a Blue from Jessamine County, ran as a Democrat for the Kentucky Senate. While on the campaign trail, she met constituents from across the political spectrum who were drawn to her message of decency – warning about the perils of polarization and hyper-partisanship. “People were more interested in that than anything else I said,” she explained.

One of those constituents was Dr. Steve Clements, a Red who not only shares her frustration but also her motivation to address the division. “We are both trying to explain this landscape to 20-year-olds,” Steve said. He’s a professor of political science at Asbury University, while Carolyn is a professor of history at Eastern Kentucky University.

Since Steve teaches a class on state and local politics, he invited Carolyn to speak to his students about her experience running for office. “There are alumni who still reference that class with Carolyn and how impressed they were,” he said.

As they began recruiting members to join the alliance, Carolyn reached out to people she met on the campaign trail.

After the election, Carolyn channeled her energy into building a local Braver Angels alliance and she asked Steve to be her Red co-chair. “Steve and I are real friends,” she said. “He was a natural person for me to reach out to because we have had so many conversations bemoaning the state of politics.”

As they began recruiting members to join the alliance, Carolyn reached out to people she met on the campaign trail: “I followed up with around 30 of them and 20 said yes.” Not all of them were strangers; in fact, many of them knew each other from church, rotary clubs, or other forms of political involvement. “It helped that people have been in Jessamine for a long time,” Steve said. “Many have been here their whole lives.”

Just outside of Lexington – a city of 300,000 people known for its horse farms and racetracks – Jessamine County is a “bedroom community with a rural sensibility.” It’s predominantly Red – voting Republican in every presidential election since 2000 – and has a strong sense of community, which the alliance is rooted in. “If Braver Angels disappeared tomorrow, our relationships would go on,” Carolyn said.

This grounding in community adds an interesting dimension to the alliance – making it both harder and easier to talk about politics. On one hand, there’s more at stake. “If you go to church with somebody and you have a political disagreement with them outside of church, you’re still going to see them,” Carolyn said. However, since some relationships predated the alliance, “there’s a deeper reservoir of trust.”

For Steve and Carolyn, this alliance is an opportunity to give people a place to hash out their opinions without fear of judgment or ridicule. “It’s common to stop talking about politics with people you know because it can go off the rails,” Steve said. “This is our attempt to very modestly cut against that.” But it was a process – during which they gradually developed their depolarization skills through workshops and film and book discussions.

“After a year, everyone agreed we were playing it pretty safe,” Carolyn said. Alliance members began asking for a chance to put their skills to the test by diving deep into a specific political issue. Carolyn had heard about other alliances doing Common Ground Single Issue Workshops, and she wanted to give it a try, so they went for it – deciding on abortion as the issue to explore. “Of course we chose an easy topic,” Steve joked.

“I felt like if we could get past this issue we could talk about almost anything.”

Suddenly, the pressure was on. “Abortion has been one of the biggest drivers of politics in this area for decades,” Carolyn said. While Jessamine County used to be a reliably Blue area, the association of abortion with Democrats turned Evangelicals in the area into single-issue Red voters, she explained.

On top of that, the issue of abortion was also dominating the national discourse. At the time they decided to do the workshop, a leaked Supreme Court draft indicated Roe v. Wade would soon be overturned. Less than two months later, it was. This put Kentucky’s trigger ban into effect, making nearly all abortions illegal unless performed to save the mother’s life. “I felt like if we could get past this issue we could talk about almost anything,” Carolyn said.

Leading up to the workshop, Carolyn and Steve assigned two-hours worth of readings so people came in with a common base of knowledge. They wanted to make sure they incorporated a variety of viewpoints, so they had everyone read a chapter from The Politics of the Cross: A Christian Alternative to Partisanship, written by Daniel K. Williams, a pro-life Evangelical. “He talks about how abortion is an economic issue – an issue of poverty,” Carolyn said. “It was eye-opening to hear a pro-life person saying if we want to stop abortion we need to have some economic answers.”

They also provided fact sheets and statistics to ensure it was a factually-driven conversation, and not solely a moral one. Additionally, they read about proactive policy solutions that could reduce the need for abortions, specifically digging into Colorado’s success with long-acting reversible contraception (LARC). “We were blown away by it,” Carolyn said. “It helped me see how our political system has driven us to frame the issue in the wrong way. We focus on abortion or no abortion, but we don’t think about other solutions.”

“It didn’t even come close to breaking us. Instead, we were heartened by how much we agreed on.”

Given the relevancy and urgency of the issue, Carolyn said the alliance went into this workshop believing it would either make or break them. But the result was nothing short of “miraculous,” she said. “It didn’t even come close to breaking us. Instead, we were heartened by how much we agreed on.” Together, they compiled a comprehensive list of “Truth Statements,” which everyone supported – regardless of their political affiliation.

From there, they each took on a different task. “One member will be sending the list to 55 local pastors. Another has contacted the press, and two others are going to reach out to the director of the County Health Department,” Carolyn said. “I spoke to a Blue state legislator about filing a bill and told them we really need this LARC program because it would address the problem in a way most people can support.”

Each alliance across the country operates in its own way. In Jessamine County, they took their time before tackling a contentious debate – and it worked. “I don’t think we could’ve done the abortion issue workshop if we hadn’t laid a foundation for a year,” Carolyn said. And they’ve come a long way. “After our first workshop, people were astounded,” Carolyn said. “They couldn’t believe we were talking about politics in a civil fashion.”

Steve agreed, adding that there aren’t many places for political issues to be honestly and thoroughly explored. “There’s not a natural arrangement for this to happen,” he said. But he said having the support and structure of a national organization like Braver Angels makes the difference. “It’s kind of like political therapy,” he said. “Or political Sunday school,” Carolyn chimed in.

“Cultivating openness for someone even when you don’t agree – doing this changes a person.”

Either way, the Jessamine County Alliance has had an impact on the community, the members, and the people who lead it. “Somebody asked me why I did this and I told them, ‘I do it for myself,’” Carolyn said. “Cultivating openness for someone even when you don’t agree – doing this changes a person.”

“It changes your sense of how you want to be in the world. And that’s the most valuable thing about it.”

For more information on Braver Angels alliances and how to get involved, go to this link. To sign up for or learn more about the Common Ground Single Issue Workshops, go to this link. To suggest more stories I could report from the Braver Angels community, send me a note at gtimmis@braverangels.org.

The post ‘If we could get past this issue we could talk about almost anything’: Here’s how the Jessamine County Alliance dove into a heated issue appeared first on Braver Angels.

‘The atmosphere is electrifying’: How Braver Angels debates are lighting up college campuses

Gabriella Timmis — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 21:31:05 +0000

Imagine you’re a college student and a controversial issue comes up during class. In my experience, it can often go one of two ways: either everyone agrees – making the discussion uneventful if not boring – or somebody disagrees, and the conversation quickly escalates and then gets immediately derailed or shut down. In either case, students aren’t given the chance to sit in discomfort long enough to explore the most interesting dimensions of the issue.

At their best, college campuses are uniquely positioned to nurture discovery and growth. But for the past decade, people from across the political spectrum have been concerned about how polarization has stifled civil discourse at these institutions. According to one report, 24% of liberal students and 68% of conservative students engage in self-censorship – at least in part because they’re concerned that “other students in the class would have a lower opinion of them as a direct result of sharing their political perspectives.”

Instead of winning the argument or convincing the other side, these debates are focused on creating more understanding through deep listening, critical thinking,

and thoughtful communication.

In 2018, April Lawson, Director of Debates at Braver Angels, and Doug Sprei, VP of Multimedia and Campus Partnerships at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), recognized the need to foster more honest and productive dialogue on college campuses. In partnership with the student group BridgeUSA, they developed a College Debates and Discourse Program for college students nationwide. Instead of “winning” the argument or convincing the other side, these debates are focused on creating understanding through “deep listening, critical thinking, and thoughtful communication.”

Early on, after a successful debate at American University, Doug said they realized they had captured “lightning in a bottle.” “The heightened attention, alertness, listening, and empathy that’s in the room – you can feel it,” Doug said. “The atmosphere is electrifying.” Since it’s started, they’ve launched nearly 90 campus and classroom debates and have engaged around 4,000 students across the country. And the demand is high. “The phone is ringing; we’re not doing much cold calling,” Doug said. “A lot of schools are finding out about this and asking us to come to their campuses – and it’s growing all the time.”

Since the College Debates and Discourse Program started, they’ve produced nearly 90 campus and classroom debates and have engaged around 4,000 students across the country.

What makes this program so effective? First, the partnership between Braver Angels, ACTA, and BridgeUSA has worked well, with each organization contributing something different and complementary. Braver Angels brings the debate methodology that allows students to engage with empathy, ACTA provides connections to college leadership as well as project management and media expertise, and BridgeUSA has student-led chapters across college campuses. “This partnership is a very natural one,” Doug said. “It’s kind of intuitive.”

In turn, the partners collaborate with students and faculty members on campus to “give them as much ownership of what they’d like their Braver Angels debate to be as possible,” Doug said. Specifically, they have students choose the resolution. Some schools tackle a pressing international debate, such as “Should the U.S. send troops to protect democracies in peril,” while other schools opt for a local issue, like, “Should Greek life be eliminated from our campus?”

Giving students ownership of the topic makes every debate unique. “It’s very much customized toward the individual campus, the vision that the students and faculty have, and the climate that is there on campus,” Doug said. Students will often choose an especially-heated issue for their campus. And once these passions are inflamed, they can be “transmuted into something powerful if people dare to speak, listen, and create an atmosphere of respect,” Doug said.

Once these passions are inflamed, they can be “transmuted

into something powerful if people dare to speak,

listen and create an atmosphere of respect.”

Another key component of their success is the format – a light parliamentary-style debate chaired by a trained expert – which April designed based on her years participating in debate through high school and college. With this format, the students never directly respond to each other with a question like, “Why did you say that?” Instead, they direct their responses to the chair, saying, “Madam Chair, I am curious why the previous speaker said that.”

This structure provides an important guardrail that steers the conversation. It generates enough energy for the participants and audience to learn without being overwhelmed by conflict or chaos. “You don’t have an opportunity to do your typical tit-for-tat dialogue with someone,” Doug said. “You’re speaking to many minds all at once and they’re all listening to you.” And when students have the floor, they’re incentivized to “think critically about what they’re saying.”

Doug gave the example of a participant at UC Berkeley’s debate on the future of People’s Park – an individual who had been previously arrested by the campus police for violent protesting. Despite the reservations of university officials, he was given the opportunity to be an opening speaker at the debate. “He spoke persuasively, eloquently, and powerfully, and everyone listened,” Doug said. “He was able to channel his energy and emotion into productively sharing his point of view. We’ve seen that happen again and again in debates.”

There’s also room for “aha” moments. When members of the local Native American community came to Arizona State University to participate in a debate about building a wall at our southern border, they shared their perspectives on how the sacred lands, which are intertwined with their history and culture, would be affected. “The room became really quiet,” Doug said. “That’s a moment where people’s thinking widens. You discover there’s so much more to a topic than you expected when you walked in the room.”

“You discover there’s so much more to a topic than you expected when you walked in the room.”

Over the past four years – a period marked by escalating tension over election integrity, racial justice, abortion rights, COVID restrictions, gun laws, and more – these debates have served an important purpose for students. “College campuses are wonderful environments in which to inject a whole new intervention like this,” Doug said. “It gives students an experience of discourse and free exchanges of ideas that social media or regular conversation don’t often permit because there’s so much toxicity and rancor.”

And it doesn’t just excite the students. “Professors are constantly delighted by seeing their students manifest in this way,” Doug said. “The debate seems to bring out the best in everyone’s humanity.” He said it allows students to realize that just because they disagree with someone, doesn’t mean they’re fundamentally an adversary. And at a time when these conversations are often shut down or derailed, these debates give participants the ability to learn more deeply about other perspectives and gain respect for each other in the process. “As students explore not just the left and the right, but the nuances and contours of a topic, their critical thinking is ignited.”

“The thing that made my heart dance

apparently makes a lot of hearts dance.”

Between the partnership with ACTA and BridgeUSA, the parliamentary-style format, and the success on campus, these debates have grown into a program with funding, staff, and focused leadership. “It’s become much more than April and I imagined it would be four years ago,” Doug said. “And it happened organically. When you recognize something that is ‘meant to be’ and sort of germinates by itself, you want to nourish that and let it stand up on its own.”

Much like how the conception of Braver Angels was a natural response to what American people needed and yearned for, this debate program is “driven by the demand that’s surging in the higher ed space.” “It seems to come from that same personal hunger that I felt myself when I first found out about Braver Angels,” Doug said. “The thing that made my heart dance apparently makes a lot of hearts dance.”

To sign up for or learn more about the College Debates and Discourse Program, go to this link. To suggest more stories I could report from the Braver Angels community, send me a note at gtimmis@braverangels.org.

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‘Most of us have never met in person’: How the rural Central/Eastern Washington Alliance built a community from afar

Gabriella Timmis — Mon, 23 May 2022 16:04:27 +0000

For many Americans, talking about politics can be stressful, draining, and isolating. And since disagreement can drive us apart, many opt to avoid the conversation altogether. But for the Central/Eastern Washington Alliance – a group that represents the wide-ranging rural part of the state – coming together to talk about politics has helped them create a community from afar.

The Cascade Mountains – a mountain range in Washington – separates the more urban western side of the state from the more rural eastern side of the state. While Seattle – a city of 750,000 people – resides in the west, the east side’s largest city is Spokane, which has a population of a little over 200,000.

“Most of us have never met in person.”

According to the United States Census Bureau, close to 60 million people – or one in five Americans – live in rural areas like this one. “There’s a lot of land in the east, but it’s not densely populated,” said Janice Dickinson, a co-chair of the Central/Eastern Washington Alliance. This can make it harder to get together in person because members may live up to five hours away from one another. So the shift to Zoom meetings during the pandemic allowed rural alliances like this one to thrive. “Most of us have never met in person,” Janice said. “It’s not unique to us, but we may be an extreme version of it.”

Despite the distance, they’re still a close group. Unlike most alliances, which are led by two co-chairs – one Red and one Blue – the Central/Eastern Washington Alliance has six co-chairs – three Reds and three Blues – as well as an organizer, Yvonne Boyd, who coordinates logistics, sends out emails, and keeps the alliance on track. This dynamic leadership structure is inherently supportive, allowing the co-chairs to proactively combat the threat of burnout, which can happen when people are spread thin or have too many roles.

“There’s no judgment placed on people’s involvement –

we trust each co-chair will put in what they can.”

“When you have that many folks involved, no one feels pressure to be the person running the show,” Janice said. This allows each co-chair to contribute in a way they enjoy, and say no when something isn’t up their alley or they don’t have time. “There’s no judgment placed on people’s involvement – we trust each co-chair will put in what they can,” Janice said. And when something is at risk of falling through, the co-chairs are able to be agile. “It’s almost like a dance – everyone steps in where they’re needed.”

With six co-chairs, good coordination and efficient communication are key. “We meet for a half hour before our alliance meetings, communicate via email, and keep it simple,” Janice said. “It can’t be too rigid because that becomes time-consuming and drudgery.”

But having an organizer makes the difference. When they were getting their alliance off the ground, Yvonne told the group she didn’t have to be a co-chair weighing in on the decisions. “Instead, she said she can help us stay glued together,” Janice said. And she has. While the co-chairs are the decision makers, Yvonne is the facilitator. “It’s a fantastic way to do it – she’s kept us moving forward.”

“When you are super polarized, there’s no humor in politics – everything is life and death – but as you get depolarized, you see more diversity and you can find more joy and humor.”

With the right structure and proper flow, there’s more room to enjoy each other’s company. “When you are super polarized, there’s no humor in politics – everything is life and death – but as you get depolarized, you see more diversity and you can find more joy and humor,” Janice said. “You have to have fun and you have to laugh.”

A few weeks after speaking with Janice, I dropped into an Central/Eastern Washington Alliance meeting to see firsthand how it operates. I immediately felt the sense of warmth and welcome she described, despite Zooming in from almost 3,000 miles away in Boston.

When I got there, I first met Yvonne, and then was introduced to Emily Jacobs, Mary Lynn Hutchison, Shane Gronholz, Sharon Lonergan, and Tom Silva, the five other co-chairs who, with Janice, lead the alliance. Before the meeting started, they caught up with each other, shared stories about their day, and laughed together. I thought back to a point Janice made when we initially spoke: the more of a relationship you have beyond politics, the easier it is to talk across differences.

I immediately felt the sense of warmth and welcome

she described, despite Zooming in from almost

3,000 miles away in Boston.

That night, the alliance hosted Questions of Curiosity, a program they launched as a way to connect their members with subject-matter experts so they can openly ask questions and gain a deeper understanding of different issues. The speaker that night was Chariss Warner, the Director of Ministries at Tri-City Union Gospel Mission, an organization that works with the homeless population in Southeast Washington.

At the end of the meeting, Chariss addressed the group: “Doing this work makes me feel like a lone ranger at times, so thank you for caring enough to spend your evening learning about this.” In return, the members of the Central/Eastern Washington Alliance sat from their homes – each possibly hours apart from each other – and showed appreciation for yet another opportunity to learn, laugh, and connect with one another. They showed that even in rural regions, Braver Angels alliances are building communities and bridging the political divide.

For more information on Braver Angels alliances and how to get involved, go to this link. To learn more about the Central/Eastern Washington Alliance in particular, go to this link. To suggest more stories I could report from the Braver Angels community, send me a note at gtimmis@braverangels.org.

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A former New Hampshire state legislator is working against ‘knee-bashing politics’

Gabriella Timmis — Fri, 29 Apr 2022 16:38:51 +0000

Dr. Doug Teschner has led a big life: he served as a state legislator, worked on the ground in community mental health, has been stationed overseas with the Peace Corps, and was recently appointed to the New Hampshire Commission on Voter Confidence.

While he said it’s hard to look back and identify what exactly motivated each step, his baseline belief today is that “everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.” With this in mind, he got involved with Braver Angels in 2019 – taking on various leadership roles, and now serving as the New England Regional Leader.

But even before he joined Braver Angels, he had its mission in mind. In 1998, as a state representative on the brink of retiring, Doug gave his last speech in office, bidding farewell to the New Hampshire House of Representatives, where he served for a decade. As he stood in front of the chamber, he issued a warning:

“I want to say one word of caution… the level of civility among members has declined in recent years. This seems to be happening at all levels of government and, indeed, throughout society. We can show people a better way. Earlier, I talked about living in a sacred space. Well, this House, this chamber, is a sacred place, too.”

Unfortunately, not enough legislators took this omen to heart. Years later, in 2012, Doug tuned into an episode of This American Life called “Red State Blue State.” It was highlighting what had transpired in the New Hampshire House of Representatives since he left.

The state legislature descended into the “knee-bashing,

‘you’re either with us or against us’ politics” Doug had warned about years before.

New Hampshire – which the reporter, Sarah Koenig, referred to as “the swear jar state” because there have been town meetings where “if you are rude, you have to put a quarter in [a swear jar]” – was once known for its cross-partisan courtesy. But, as the episode chronicled, the state legislature descended into the “knee-bashing, ‘you’re either with us or against us’ politics” Doug had warned about years before.

At the time, Doug said he found the episode “disturbing,” as he wondered what direction our country was headed in. This kind of “us against them” mentality flew in the face of everything he stood for throughout his career.

Doug first joined the Peace Corps as a volunteer in Morocco during the 1970s, and then returned in 2008 to work for nine years as a country director and expert consultant across six different countries. He was the Peace Corps Director in Ukraine in 2014 when Russia invaded Crimea. Then, he was sent to work in Africa during the Ebola crisis.

No matter what part of the world he was stationed in, Doug knew in order to find solutions and make a positive impact, he had to understand the culture of the local community and encourage people to work across differences.

No matter what part of the world he was stationed in, Doug knew in order to find solutions and make a positive impact, he had to understand the culture of the local community and encourage people to work across differences. “As Norman Maclean said, ‘If you don’t know the ground, you’re probably wrong about everything else,’” Doug noted.

When he was combatting the Ebola crisis in Guinea, for example, he had to navigate how to work with different tribes and coordinate a response when people didn’t trust the government. At the time, this felt unfamiliar to him as an American, but “Guineans understood this,” he said. So they took the lead, going door to door to talk to their neighbors about how to protect themselves against Ebola.

These days, Doug is back in New Hampshire, hoping to use his home-court advantage to create change in his state’s politics. A few months ago, he returned to the chamber where he once issued a warning about a lack of civility. He recruited six Democratic representatives and six Republican representatives and, with the help of co-founder of Braver Angels Dr. Bill Doherty, put on a Red/Blue Workshop.

The state representatives had an opportunity to open up to one another and forge meaningful relationships, which was especially hard through the pandemic.

It started off a bit tense. “Democrats were on one side of the room, all masked, and Republicans on the other side of the room, all unmasked,” Doug said. “But after three hours – you wouldn’t believe it – it couldn’t have gone better.” The state representatives had an opportunity to open up to one another and forge meaningful connections, which was especially hard through the pandemic. And they had a lot to bond over. “Two of them found out they had both been foster children,” Doug said.

Behind closed doors, Democrats and Republicans were able to come together in a way they likely never would have otherwise. But back in the chamber, it’s tempting to slip back into polarized dynamics. “There’s a lot of outside pressure on politicians to stoke division – conflict entrepreneurs get money, power, and influence by cranking up their bases,” Doug said. “But I’m not giving up. I’m like a bug in the ear.”

Life has taught Doug that change doesn’t come easy. “There’s a cartoon where a speaker asks a crowd, ‘Who wants change?’ Everybody’s hand goes up. Then he asks, ‘Who wants to change?’ And nobody raises their hand,” Doug said. “It’s really hard to improve your life.” And yet, he’s committed to doing just that.

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do

With your one wild and precious life?”

On his computer, he has a document called “Life Path Forward,” where he writes down what’s most important to him and checks in periodically to ask himself how his actions align with his mission. He refers back to a line from Mary Oliver’s poem, The Summer Day, which reads: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / With your one wild and precious life?”

Right now, he’s focused on ensuring the cross-partisan connections forged behind closed doors make their way to the floor of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. And if that means he has to be a bug in a few legislators’ ears, so be it.

To learn more about Braver Angels alliances like the one Doug leads in New England, go to this link. To suggest more stories I could report from the Braver Angels community, send me a note at gtimmis@braverangels.org.

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‘Braver Angels plays a role in protecting our national security’: A military intelligence analyst shares his perspective

Gabriella Timmis — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 22:00:07 +0000

When you hear “national security,” you may think of competition from adversaries, the debate over the border, or the threat of an impending war. But Ted Getschman, a Nevada Braver Angels Alliance co-chair and contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense and Department of Intelligence Agency, believes we need a more expansive view.

One of the biggest misconceptions about the role of national security? People think it only encompasses the military. But Ted said that isn’t true. “National security is the ability for a country to keep itself safe AND its systems producing,” he said. “It’s a multi-faceted concept.” Think: trade and education – two issues that might not outwardly seem related. Both play a role in our country’s stability, and therefore, national security.

A country’s form of government also determines what keeps it safe and what could destabilize it. For example, when a country is ruled by a single person, or a dictator, the government may believe the biggest national security threat would be someone taking out the leader. “But democracy is different,” Ted said. “You break a democracy by breaking people apart.”

“You break a democracy by breaking people apart.”

In a democracy like the United States, one of the most important dimensions of our long-term safety and stability is our ability to trust our leaders, institutions, and especially, each other. And right now, our trust is at historic lows. According to the 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer, “distrust is now society’s default emotion,” with 6 in 10 saying their tendency is to distrust something until they see evidence it is trustworthy. From Ted’s perspective, without restoring trust, “we won’t be able to respond to major problems in a timely manner.”

While there has been much said about the political division in this country, Ted isn’t sure whether Americans appreciate how our inner turmoil threatens our country’s security. “If you believe your nation is falling apart, then it’s not secure,” Ted said. And our adversaries take notice. When it comes to disrupting another country’s cohesion, “you find the cracks that already exist and then make them deeper,” Ted said. “It’s a known tactic.”

Once the seed of conflict is planted, more people will jump in, not knowing the fight was created by a foreign adversary for this explicit purpose.

Ted gave the example of Russian troll sites, where just one person can tap into societal “cracks” to manufacture a full-blown fight on social media. Here’s how: first, they will create a fake account and post an inflammatory piece of content advocating for one side. Then, while posing as someone different, they will generate an equally provocative response. Once the seed of conflict is planted, more people will jump in, not knowing the fight was created by a foreign adversary for this explicit purpose. And just like that, “one person can cause chaos in the United States.”

While the state of politics can feel dire, Ted believes it’s fixable if we understand the driving forces of division. He said one issue is our inability to plan long-term. Given the format of our system, the people who are elected to determine our country’s direction change every few years. This means any progress – even on the problems we broadly agree on – is either torn down after a term or incapable of being addressed altogether.

Ted said this part of the problem has less to do with voters or politicians, and more to do with the system. At this point in the conversation, he jumped up like a coach during halftime and grabbed a whiteboard to map out his idea of a better path forward.

“Is the great experiment – the Golden Age of democracy – over? No. It hasn’t even begun.”

Ted explained how we’ve experienced division in our country since its inception. “Elections from the beginning had all the controversy and excitement we have today,” he said. We even went to war with each other over our differences. So, despite the fact the people, politicians, parties, media, and culture have all changed, the division has remained.

Ted believes there’s an inherent flaw in our voting method which is driving us apart and away from the majority opinion. “We don’t have a system where all different viewpoints can come together,” Ted said. Instead, people are forced to pick a side, even if it doesn’t represent their perspective. His solution is “MaxVoting,” which he said would shift our system from “majority rule” to “majority opinion rule” by incentivizing politicians to be in touch with what most people want. Through this, “we could be moving systemically to rapidly solve issues,” he said.

But there’s another dimension of division that could work against this system-based solution: our inability to speak with those with whom we disagree. Ted said we might agree on 48 out of 50 issues, but if we don’t understand how to talk about those two issues where we diverge, they could drive us apart. “The need to develop this skill never ends,” he said. “But it doesn’t come naturally.”

“Braver Angels plays a role in protecting our national security because it teaches people how to communicate even when they don’t have the same perspective.”

That’s where Braver Angels comes in. “Braver Angels plays a role in protecting our national security because it teaches people how to communicate even when they don’t have the same perspective,” Ted said. “When you learn to listen and feel you’re being listened to, it’s hard to get angry.”

Instead, something else happens: you build trust with one another. And that’s the cornerstone of our country’s long-term stability. Ted said “when you put trust back into democracy, you can face difficult problems,” because a tightly-knit society is harder to penetrate. “This is how you prevent foreign governments from pushing buttons, elevating extremism, and driving people further apart.”

While Ted’s career has been focused on managing threats from the outside, he now wants to direct his energy toward mending the United States from within. “The biggest thing I want people to understand is that they do not know how good America could be,” he said. “First, we need to fix the system and fix interpersonal communication so we can hear each other.”

“So, is the great experiment – the Golden Age of democracy – over? No. It hasn’t even begun,” Ted said. “We know what causes division and we know what cures division. We have the knowledge, it’s just a matter of how fast we get there.”

To learn more about Braver Angels alliances like the one Ted leads in Nevada, go to this link. To suggest more stories I could report from the Braver Angels community, send me a note at gtimmis@braverangels.org.

— Gabriella Timmis, Braver Angels Field Reporter

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He’s a southern conservative. She’s a midwestern-turned-east coast liberal. They can’t stop talking about politics.

Gabriella Timmis — Sat, 09 Apr 2022 22:14:18 +0000

At first glance, Cheryl Brown and David Kaufman are very different people.

She grew up in a tight-knit Jewish community in Minnesota. He is a southerner whose formative years were spent living in Alabama and Georgia.

She moved to New York City in the 1970s to pursue a career in social work and never left. After college, he was commissioned as an officer in the Navy and lived in several countries before settling in Charleston, South Carolina.

She’s liberal. He said he’s on the opposite side of the political spectrum. But that’s not a problem for them.

In fact, it’s the point.

She’s liberal. He said he’s on the opposite side of the political spectrum. But that’s not a problem for them. In fact, it’s the point.

Cheryl and David met through Braver Angels in May 2021 and have been talking ever since through Red/Blue 1:1 conversations, which are structured one-hour discussions connecting a conservative and a liberal.

While Cheryl learned about Braver Angels through her work as a therapist – co-founder Bill Doherty was her teacher – David discovered it after struggling to talk to his neighbors, who are Democrats, about controversial issues. “You don’t know it’s a sensitive topic until it’s too late,” he said.

“The more conversations you have, the more familiar you become, the more sensitive issues you’re willing to discuss,” David said.

Since joining Braver Angels, David’s expanded his horizons. “The more conversations you have, the more familiar you become, the more sensitive issues you’re willing to discuss,” he said. So far, he’s had nine 1:1 partners from “all walks of life” and just finished his 27th conversation.

His advice to first-timers is fairly straightforward: follow the script. “It helps you get deeper rather than show the other person is wrong,” he said. Cheryl agreed, adding that they typically choose a topic, study up, and then both people share their opinions with each other.

This information exchange has gone beyond the confines of their scheduled conversations and has evolved into a regular practice, during which each person will share articles they find interesting and ask for the other’s perspective.

The more Cheryl learns, the longer she spends reading the news, and the less she’s watching the news. She believes the on-air anger and toxicity stokes division and distorts people’s perception of those on the opposite side of the political spectrum. “I just stopped listening to cable news altogether,” she said. “I can’t stand it anymore.”

Still, there’s room for healthy disagreement. In their last conversation, Cheryl made a throwaway comment about how former President Donald Trump was beholden to Vladimir Putin, not thinking it was a controversial take. But David had a different reaction. “I was stunned,” he said. “I had never heard that. I thought Trump did a good job at keeping Putin in check.

“Being exposed to someone with totally different values and trying to see the world through their lens is invigorating,”

David said.

These moments of surprise create opportunities to learn, which David values most about these conversations. “Being exposed to someone with totally different values and trying to see the world through their lens is invigorating,” he said.

Both Cheryl and David have been able to grow through this process. “Sometimes I feel a little inadequate,” Cheryl said. “I don’t have the best American history background.” But through talking to David, a man who’s served this country, she said she’s been able to deepen her understanding of America’s past and present.

As for David, he’s learned to navigate and avoid confrontation by knowing “when to keep talking and when to shut up.” It doesn’t always come naturally to him. “I’m an introvert,” he said. “But now I don’t let an initial interaction shut me down.”

These conversations are “an opportunity to speak to someone who lives very differently from you but wants to understand your perspective,” Cheryl said.

These conversations are “an opportunity to speak to someone who lives very differently from you but wants to understand your perspective,” Cheryl said. “You go in with the same curiosity to learn, and you get to learn about someone you never would’ve met.”

One of the most meaningful lessons? They’re not as different as they initially thought. Both Cheryl and David described the other as “curious” with a commitment to serving people.

“David does a lot of volunteer work and fundraising for domestic abuse shelters,” Cheryl said. And Cheryl uses her work with Braver Angels to train therapists to bridge the political divide in this country. “I have a special PowerPoint slide on David,” she said.

Despite their different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives of the world, Cheryl and David have overlap where it counts: a commitment to curiosity, a love of learning, and a belief in helping people – and each other – create a better future for our country.

To sign up for or learn more about Braver Angels 1:1 Red/Blue, Urban-Suburban/Rural-Small Town Conversations, Conversations Across Generations, and Conversations About Race, Ethnicity and Culture, go to this link. To suggest more stories I could report from the Braver Angels community, send me a note at gtimmis@braverangels.org.

— Gabriella Timmis, Braver Angels Field Reporter

The post He’s a southern conservative. She’s a midwestern-turned-east coast liberal. They can’t stop talking about politics. appeared first on Braver Angels.

From 11 to 1,500: How a Braver Angels Alliance expanded its reach and made a national impact

Gabriella Timmis — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 02:37:03 +0000

Karl Schmalz and Norman Kaderlan were in the room where it happened: the unusual start to the Central Texas Alliance, one of the most dynamic local groups in Braver Angels.

It was 2018 when 11 strangers gathered in Steve Saltwick’s living room in Austin, Texas.

It was 2018 when 11 strangers gathered in Steve Saltwick’s living room in Austin, Texas. They were identified by Rob Robertson, a Braver Angels representative, as people in the Austin area who might be interested in bridging the political divide in Texas.

Little did Karl and Norman know, after Steve and Mike Seay stepped down as the alliance co-chairs, they’d be the next leaders of this growing group.

Karl’s wife, who doesn’t share his conservative political perspective, was the catalyst for him to join the initial meeting in 2018. “I was a bit reluctant,” he said. But with her encouragement, he decided to give it a try. It was an “offer he couldn’t refuse,” Norman said with a laugh.

Norman, a liberal, had heard of Braver Angels before the meeting and was interested in getting involved as a moderator. However, neither of them knew Steve or Mike before their fateful gathering.

Today, the Central Texas Alliance is led by the two men: Karl, as the Red Chair, and Norman, as the Blue Chair. Through their leadership, they’ve amassed a subscriber base of 1,500 people, many of whom don’t even live in Texas. During the pandemic, the transition to virtual events allowed the alliance to reach an even broader audience. In 2021, the Central Texas Alliance organized 90 events, averaging seven or eight a month.

The key to the Central Texas Alliance’s success is its flexibility. “We try to be responsive and meet our members’ needs,” Norman said. “That’s how we keep people engaged.” And they’re always brainstorming ways to reach out.

Beyond organizing official alliance meetings and national workshops, the Central Texas Alliance has a check-in called “How Ya’ Doing?”, town hall-style debates, informal coffee and conversations, and “Beyond Politics” events, so they can get to know each other on a more personal level.

Beyond organizing official alliance meetings and national workshops, the Central Texas Alliance has a check-in called “How Ya’ Doing?”, town hall-style debates, informal coffee and conversations, and “Beyond Politics” events, so they can get to know each other on a more personal level. They also have a group that meets every few weeks to read and discuss a section of the Constitution together.

Many of these meet-ups are driven by requests from their members, but they’ll also keep a pulse on what other alliances are doing. “We’ll ‘steal’ from the best,” Norman said.

The Central Texas Alliance events are in service of their two-part mission: to introduce more Central Texans to the Braver Angels process of depolarization and to work together to solve real problems.

This mission is powered by their ability to bring people together and forge meaningful relationships. Upon meeting each other, Norman said members from either side of the political spectrum are often pleasantly surprised, asking one another: “How representative are you of Red or Blue? Are there more like you?”

Since Central Texas makes up the region surrounding Austin – a “Blue Oasis” in a Red border state – Karl said this alliance has a unique opportunity to disrupt biases, proving neither Blues nor Reds are homogeneous.

Since Central Texas makes up the region surrounding Austin – a “Blue Oasis” in a Red border state – Karl said this alliance has a unique opportunity to disrupt biases, proving neither Blues nor Reds are homogeneous. “People come to realize their perception of the other side isn’t accurate,” Norman added. “There are people outside of the extreme.”

Even those who position themselves firmly on the farthest end of the political spectrum can create cross-partisan connections. One Central Texas Alliance member – who labels himself with “RRR” for his steadfast commitment to being a “ruby Red” – has discovered a friendship with a Red-turned-Purple member who lives on the West Coast. “We can help create relationships whether we are involved in them or not,” Karl said.

The strength of these bonds start at the top; after speaking with Karl and Norman, it’s clear how much they value each other’s opinions, no matter how much they differ. “Norman’s pretty Blue – he has some strong viewpoints and is not shy to express them,” Karl said. “But he does it well and respectfully.”

Karl joked their differences are most starkly represented when they refer to “The Times”: to him, it means the conservative newspaper The Washington Times, to Norman, it means the more liberal New York Times.

Karl joked their differences are most starkly represented when they refer to “The Times”: to him, it means the conservative newspaper The Washington Times, to Norman, it means the more liberal New York Times. Still, they’re able to talk across the political and media divide. “We never would’ve encountered each other in our ordinary lives and we have very different perspectives, but we have trust,” Norman said.

This trust has trickled down into their programming, creating hope for even first-time participants. After a Red/Blue Workshop with students in the summer of 2020, one young Red wrote:

“It is one thing to put aside difficult conversations about politics, religion, or morality and engage with people in a compassionate and polite way. It is quite another to say what we really think about things that are dear to our hearts, controversial, and highly sensitive, while being truly open… This is something that I have had such a longing to really learn how to do and Braver Angels seems to offer such a great atmosphere to practice this important kind of human engagement.”

“Internally, I have a pendulum that swings from hope to despair,” Norman said. “I find that every time I encounter a Braver Angels event, it moves toward hope, and I think a lot of people feel that way.”

Four years after their initial meeting, this alliance is as it began: A group of strangers-turned-friends working together across differences to bridge the divide during this time in American history.

For more information on Braver Angels alliances and how to get involved, go to this link. To learn more about the Central Texas alliance in particular, go to this link. To suggest more stories I could report from the Braver Angels community, send me a note at gtimmis@braverangels.org.

— Gabriella Timmis, Braver Angels Field Reporter

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‘We need to see each other’s humanity in all aspects of life’: One teen’s journey to tackling political division within her generation

Gabriella Timmis — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 16:05:19 +0000

Between the pandemic, online learning, the restriction of social events, the escalation of political conflict, and the intensity of social activism both in the streets and on social media, teenagers, like most people, feel worn out.

For some in the younger generation, this exhaustion may impact their level of political engagement. But seventeen-year-old Josie Reich has decided to find a new way to be involved.

A few weeks ago, she collaborated with Braver Angels to host a virtual Depolarizing Within workshop for teens and young adults. The goal is to give people the skills to better listen to different perspectives during political conversations.

In the days before the event, Josie and I hopped on the phone. I wanted to know how, as a person whose brain is currently wired to conform, she was able to reject a culture of political conflict and instead look for a solution.

She began by telling me a story.

Josie grew up in the liberal bubble of Washington D.C. When she was a freshman in high school, one of the seniors left, suing the school after accusing the student body of not taking her opinions seriously. The student was one of the only conservatives in an area Josie said is “as bad as it gets in terms of one-sidedness.”

“I realized everyone around me had the same political opinion,” Josie said. “I felt a little trapped. I wasn’t having my opinions challenged.”

Josie was amongst those who disagreed with the senior, but the event triggered some reflection. “I realized everyone around me had the same political opinion,” she said. “I felt a little trapped. I wasn’t having my opinions challenged.” She was confronted by this realization when, in 2020, she worked as a field organizer on the campaign of Colonel Moe Davis.

Josie led the phone banks, calling up people throughout the district to speak with them about Colonel Davis’ campaign. Since North Carolina is a purple state, it was her first exposure talking to people who are red, rural, and older. “I realized most of my peers didn’t have an experience like that,” she said.

So when, as a senior, she had to choose a research project, she knew she wanted to look into the impact of echo chambers, or environments where people only encounter opinions similar to their own. Through her research, she discovered two big takeaways.

The first was that adolescence – the period when kids turn into teenagers – is a prime time to start understanding and communicating across political differences. This is because as their brains develop, teenagers begin to think more abstractly and formulate their worldview.

“It’s important to know people who have a different political point of view from yourself because it’s harder to demonize them.”

The second was that “it’s important to know people who have a different political point of view from yourself because it’s harder to demonize them.”

Josie added that “this doesn’t mean being a liberal and finding a conservative to debate,” but instead forging a personal relationship and recognizing the other person’s complexity – even beyond their political perspective.

But this is a challenge because “it’s hard communicating something you believe passionately and then having someone say something that makes you reconsider.” So, it’s a lot cozier sticking with people who agree with you.

“When you’re in an in-group, it feels pretty good: you can laugh about people who are different from you, you can feel like you’re doing good for the world, you can believe you’re superior in some way,” she said. “There’s not much incentive to try to have a nuanced perspective because it just feels so good to walk the party line.”

Teenagers often feel pressure to fit in with their friends, and the threat of being an outcast is real. Josie said she’s seen messages of, “if you don’t agree with me, then you’re the problem,” shared on social media. “I think that sentiment is blocking people from thinking about whether the information they’re taking in is accurate or if it aligns with their beliefs and morals.”

Josie also mentioned how the younger generation constantly sees adults who are “not behaving.” It was a humbling reminder of how difficult it must be to grow up in this political climate.

“There’s this idea imposed on teenagers, where adults will say ‘you’re the future of our country,’ but then they have a very specific idea of what that future is supposed to look like.”

When I asked Josie about how adults can work with teenagers to address these issues, she said something that stuck with me for days after: “There’s this idea imposed on teenagers, where adults will say ‘you’re the future of our country,’ but then they have a very specific idea of what that future is supposed to look like.”

Of course, each generation bears the burden of expectations from those who came before them. But at a time of so much change and division, when the future feels particularly uncertain, adults should work with those who will one day determine the direction of our country. They can do this by offering teenagers room to explore different perspectives and demonstrating how to take time to listen without falling into the pitfalls of yelling or name-calling.

At the end of the call, Josie left me with one final thought, and if there’s anything we can take away from her wisdom, I hope it’s this: “we need to see each other’s humanity in all aspects of life.” For ourselves, our country, and our future.

To learn more about and get involved with the work that is being done with Braver Angels, go to the Braver Angels website. If you are interested in helping get involved in the work of the organization in the K-12 education arena, contact Mary Thomas-Vallens at marytv@braverangels.org. To suggest more stories I could report from the Braver Angels community, send me a note at gtimmis@braverangels.org.

— Gabriella Timmis, Braver Angels Field Reporter

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We the People’s Project wants to elevate the voices of working-class Americans

Gabriella Timmis — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 21:08:48 +0000

What do a retired welder, a longtime McDonald’s employee, and a podcast host have in common? They’re all part of a leadership team for a new Braver Angels initiative called We the People’s Project.

David Lapp

We the People’s Project is a working-class coalition of people from across the political spectrum committed to working with each other – rather than against each other.

According to National Center for Education Statistics, 63 percent of Americans do not have a four-year college degree or more, but the majority of Braver Angels members do. David Lapp, a co-founder of Braver Angels, recognized the need for the organization to reflect America. He hopes this new project will highlight how “‘we the people’ includes all of us – not just those with master’s degrees or PhDs.”

To do this, We the People’s Project has designed a space of its own – live virtual forums – to elevate unheard or overlooked perspectives.

Through these forums, We the People’s Project hopes to cut through the political discourse at a moment when it’s particularly hostile. Forums are not a place to pontificate, but rather, “hear from everyday Americans on the issues of the day,” David said.

If we gave working-class people a bigger voice in our political discussions, these conversations would sound “more real,” Annette Ritter, a member of We the People’s Project, said. “More like talking person to person, looking someone in the eye, and having no expectations about what they’re going to say.”

At a time of intense judgment and ridicule, these open, honest conversations can be hard to come by. In order to have a forum where people willingly share, participants need to feel secure, said Rita Chisum, a member of We the People’s Project.

But how does that happen? Rita said it’s two-fold. First, participants have to trust that people will focus on what they say – not how they say it. Secondly, they need to feel like they’ll be accepted as they are.

By gaining a podium in the live virtual forums, Corrie Zech has felt this acceptance, becoming a success story of We the People’s Project.

Corrie Zech

Because of her past, Corrie felt she needed to assert herself so people would listen to what she had to say. “I was always trying to feel like my opinion was right,” she said. “But being a part of the We the People’s Project and having someone who has a totally different view from my own say, ‘Hey, I hear what you’re saying, but I think there are some things we can do better’ has helped me actually have a conversation with someone.”

These forums offer an opportunity to learn from and connect with one another through personal stories and lived experiences, redefining what it means to be a subject matter expert. Forums have ranged from topics on vaccine mandates, class divides on campus, and fixing the immigration system – led by those at the center of the issue.

To discuss America’s crisis of belonging, for example, David Lapp gave the podium to Richard Washington, a formerly incarcerated man, and Mariah Prows, a formerly homeless woman recovering from drug addiction.

“People at all levels need to be involved,” said Wilk Wilkinson, a member of We the People’s Project and host of Derate the Hate podcast. “It can’t just be the most educated or the elites.”

So what’s getting in our way of hearing each other out? “I am anti-hate no matter how you slice it, but I am disgusted by almost all media outlets and politicians because of the way they manipulate,” Wilk said. “It’s just not as bad as politicians will have you believe.”

His advice? “Shut off the news and talk to your neighbor.” If you’re looking for a space to do just that, We the People’s Project has an idea in mind.

Now more than ever, David believes “our country needs the folksy wisdom of working-class people.” But when they share their perspectives, he said there’s this perception of, “you’re letting in the unruly people, you have to be careful here.” However, he believes that’s not the case. “Working-class people are just like other Americans. Everyone has a story that’s really interesting.”

David’s goal is for Braver Angels to be a microcosm of America in its most idealized form: a place where an electrician, a waitress, and a lawyer can “work together, find common ground in our challenges, and present solutions to our leaders,” he said.

“I want people to feel like this is a place where they can be a citizen and where their voice can count.”

In the Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln famously spoke about a “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

While this hopeful text is easy to invoke, it’s much harder to live by.

Braver Angels aims to change that.

Would you – or someone you know – like to join We the People’s Project? Sign up here. To suggest more stories I could report from the Braver Angels community, send me a note at gtimmis@braverangels.org.

— Gabriella Timmis, Braver Angels Field Reporter

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‘You can see a spark in their eyes’: How local Braver Angels support our work

Gabriella Timmis — Sun, 20 Feb 2022 13:00:00 +0000

“Fundraising.” The word alone can send a shiver up people’s spines, but it’s critical to the work of Braver Angels.

Still, it can be an intimidating process. “Most people do not like asking for money,” said Dawn Strauss, the director of development for Braver Angels.

Why not? “You think someone’s inclination is to say no or get mad,” Dawn said. “But that’s usually not the case, and even when it is, you move on.”

Dawn Strauss

Braver Angels is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, which allows donors to make tax-deductible donations. Of the total Braver Angels budget, 70 percent goes directly to support programs such as Red/Blue workshops, skills training, and debates.

There are many organizations doing important work in our country. So what draws people to donate to Braver Angels?

The reason for Braver Angels

The answer differs depending on the person, Dawn said, but everyone has a personal story motivating them to address political polarization. “As soon as you ask someone what brought them to Braver Angels, they light up,” she said. “You can see a spark in their eyes.”

That’s true for George Bouhasin, a Texas state coordinator, who worked with the North Texas and Central Texas alliances to secure $140,000 in grant money from the Sumners Foundation. After seeing his own family members torn apart by politics, George said he was motivated to help his community – and the country – find healing.

George Bouhasin

Many are energized around the Braver Politics Initiative, Dawn said, because it works directly with elected officials and functions as a megaphone for constituents who want their leaders to overcome the toxicity within politics. The dysfunction “affects every single person in our country,” Dawn said, but many feel disempowered to make a difference, seeing the problem as “unsolvable.”

When Beverly Horstman, an Ohio state coordinator, speaks to funders, this is exactly the concern she addresses by sharing stories from the field. Since she’s working at the grassroots level, “it becomes easy to talk about Braver Angels because I see the barriers breaking down between Reds and Blues,” Beverly said.

In 2021, Beverly was able to secure a grant from New Pluralists, which allowed her to hire Kelly Zimmerman as a community organizer to support the Braver Communities Initiative in Cincinnati, Ohio.

“It’s not like you have to make things up or create a pitch,” Beverly said. “When you can talk from a base of knowledge, people understand you’re not just trying to sell something.” The results illustrate the impact. The recent Braver Angels 2020-2021 Report found 82 percent of participants in Braver Angels programs feel more comfortable with people on the opposite political side.

Beverly Horstman

Braver Angels – which is fueled by 10,000 members paying twelve dollars in annual dues – allows people to donate directly to an on-the-ground solution. “People want to be a part of fixing this political divide,” Dawn said. It’s just a matter of making them aware of how they can contribute. For those who want to give more, they have the option of donating a minimum of $1,000 to join the President’s Circle, which includes a lifetime Braver Angels membership.

Once people are bought into the mission of Braver Angels, they’re eager to get more people involved, Dawn said.

The importance of fundraising

The key to authentic fundraising is sharing your story. “If you don’t feel comfortable, you need to look within yourself and ask what you can honestly convey,” Beverly said.

She recommends reflecting on why you choose to donate your time, energy, and resources to the mission of Braver Angels. By identifying your own motivation, you can inspire others to join.

“One of my goals is to work with members and turn them into funders,” Dawn said. “People think they’re not brave enough to do it, but that’s not true.” After all, you aren’t asking someone to pay off your credit card bill, she said. “This money goes to something far greater.”

Unfortunately, there’s no quick fix to political polarization. “It took us 30 years to get here so we are not going to undo this in two or three years,” Beverly said. “That’s why we need long-term funding.”

Still, the skills learned through Braver Angels can be applied immediately. “Active learning and finding common ground are what every good relationship is built on,” Beverly said.

Through fundraising for Braver Angels, Dawn has been given what she calls “a front-row seat to what’s going on in our country.” Hearing donors’ stories and identifying their common threads has inspired her to continue finding support for the work of Braver Angels.

“So when people ask me, ‘How can you do fundraising? It sounds horrible,’ I tell them I actually count it among my greatest blessings.”

Do you know someone who’d want to read this story? Feel free to share the link with them here. To suggest more stories I could report from the Braver Angels community, send me a note at gtimmis@braverangels.org.

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