compassionate, and completely heartbroken at the destruction of the executive branch and the burning of alliances that are core to our identity as Americans.
The thing is, I believe that power known as "the goodwill of the American people" still exists. The problem is that vote suppression and gerrymandering have corrupted the ways we measure that "goodwill." And now, the executive branch -- the branch through which our will is made manifest -- has been completely co-opted for corrupt purposes.
But there are a hell of a lot of people out there doing a hell of a lot of good work. For example, Braver Angels is a group that, like Living Room Conversations, has been focused on bridging divides and "disagreeing better." They are shifting from talk to action. It will be interesting to see where it goes, but they are focusing on fostering courageous citizenship and citizen-led solutions. As described in a recent newsletter:
CLS is a program where citizens come together across differences to foster trust, forge common-ground solutions, and follow through to implement solutions to local problems. It's an essential component of Braver Angels' "north star": courageous citizenship.
Says CEO Maury Giles: "People are choosing to act, not react. In rooms filled with neighbors from different political homes, we saw what leadership looks like: contend without contempt, then turn dialogue into collaborative action. The appetite to build—not just talk—is growing."
The program grows out of Braver Angels’ enduring faith in the capacity of everyday Americans to overcome divides and rise to the challenges of our time. At this moment of civic fracture, CLS emulates and builds upon much of what others have done before: citizens’ assemblies, participatory budgeting, service initiatives, and dialogue-to-action programs.
But in today’s civic landscape, these approaches are still far from widespread. CLS is designed to help bridge that gap by making this work more accessible, visible, and sustainable. Leveraging evidence-based best practices, local CLS teams select an issue to work on, ensure broad representation of diverse perspectives, develop common-ground solutions, and drive those solutions forward into implementation – reclaiming a vision of citizenship rooted in America’s deepest democratic values.
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