USA TODAY International Edition
Bringing ‘better angels’ back to politics
National group tries to bridge a yawning divide
HARRISONBURG, Va. – Sheila Kloefkorn is a liberal, gay marketing executive in crimson-red Arizona who had a falling out with her family over the 2016 election. Greg Steinbrecher is a conservative aspiring actor from navy-blue California who has been labeled a “Nazi” by his friends for his right-of-center views.
For both, finding a way to lower the heat in a nation reaching a boil on political discourse is more than just a worthy ideal. It’s something worth fixing.
That’s why they and more than 150 other optimists from across the USA gathered at a small college in rural Virginia this month to chart a course for civil dialogue in a country of people constantly shouting at one another online and in person.
Kloefkorn and Steinbrecher joined the founding convention of an organization called Better Angels, formed by blue and red voters after Donald Trump’s election a year and a half ago.
Ten Hillary Clinton voters and 10 Trump voters came together in Ohio a few weeks after the election to share their feelings and to try to comprehend how anyone could have voted for that candidate.
David Lapp, lead organizer for Better Angels who set up the meeting, recalled the raw emotions of that weekend: anger, frustration, resentment and, yes, camaraderie.
“We realized after that we had something powerful,” he said.
The mission of Better Angels is not to convert anyone to their side but simply to understand how the political opposition views issues such as immigration, gun control
“Democracy is messy, but it’s not a blood sport.” Sarah Silver Better Angels convention attendee
and gay rights – and to talk openly about them at a time when such open conversations are often avoided in living rooms, in offices and on college campuses.
The name comes from Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address in 1861, when he hoped the fracturing nation that soon would plunge into civil war could be healed “by the better angels of our nature.”
For much of the country, the 2016 presidential election between two widely disliked candidates ripped open a wound that already was festering between blue and red America.
“We had a huge family falling-out,” said Kloefkorn, 49, of Tempe, Arizona, who campaigned and voted for Clinton. “I could barely be in the same room with my father. His wife texted me the day after and said: ‘I’m sorry that your life’s work is over. We’re really happy Trump won.’ ”
Steinbrecher, 31, of North Hollywood, California, voted for Clinton, too. But the visceral reaction from his progressive buddies not only to Trump but also to conservative causes pushed him away from liberalism.
His friends said that “people who voted for Trump were hicks, backwards and racists. So once he got elected, I thought: ‘Well, there can’t be that many millions of people who are racist and backwards. They believe something. There’s something there that I’m missing.’ So I started on a process of discovery,” he said.
The gap is widening
Experts who study political discourse confirm what many Americans already believe: The country is as polarized as it has been since the Civil War.
A study last month by political science researchers from four universities found many Americans are “dehumanizing” the opposition.
“Seventy-seven percent of our respondents rated their political opponents as less evolved than members of their own party,” lead researchers Alexander Theodoridis of the University of California-Merced and James Martherus of Vanderbilt University wrote in The Washington Post.
Lilliana Mason, an assistant professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland, said Americans have struggled for decades to find common ground, but the 2016 election “made it very clear to people that something was wrong.” Most Americans are moderate on many issues, but the nation’s deepening divide – politically and culturally – has made victory over perceived opponents more valued than the pursuit of common goals, she said.
So while surveys indicate close to 90 percent of Americans support background checks for gun purchases, many Republican lawmakers are unwilling to support them, Mason said.
“It’s considered a win for Democrats if we enact any kind of gun control legislation, and a win for Democrats means Republicans are losing. And that’s just psychologically unacceptable,” she said.
It was no coincidence that the organizers chose Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, for the convention. Here, it’s easy to forget the partisan cacophony emanating from Washington.
Participants sat down with one another in small group settings and shared their feelings.
They bemoaned damaged friendships back home and family friction and even church groups that had been torn apart over politics.
They spoke of the harm social media and news outlets had caused by “fanning the flames” of national discord.
They talked of isolation and condescension and resentment.
And they discussed that a healing must take place by treating opposing views with respect and looking for points of common ground
“Democracy is messy, but it’s not a blood sport,” said Sarah Silver, a social scientist from White Plains, New York, who voted for Clinton.
Organizers worked hard to make sure there were an equal number (72) of reds and blues at the convention, but Better Angels suffers from a demographic problem: Members skew white, upper-middle-class – and blue.
“The last thing we want to become is just another form of social capital for the upscale,” Better Angels President David Blankenhorn told the assembly.
Asked why far more progressives than conservatives are joining the group, Blankenhorn partly attributed the tilt to Clinton supporters who still have trouble comprehending how a candidate they viewed as supremely qualified for the White House could lose to someone they view as so unfit.
Feelings remain raw a year and a half after the election.
Several Trump voters at the Better Angels convention did not want to be named, fearing such disclosure would lead to problems back home.
Progressives and conservatives came together during a workshop on guns.
Minds were opened, but no one suddenly renounced a position he or she had taken before the workshop.
Anthony DiPalma, a motivational speaker from Herndon, Virginia, said that “what I learned about the other side is everybody wants a safe, happy life. Reds and blues have disagreements on how we get there, (but) there’s no reason to shoot at each other until we come up with an answer.
“And I know we can because we all care about it. Talking is the answer.”