If you are heartsick about the rancor tearing us apart, if you believe that people with different points of view should not be your enemies, if you believe that America's best days are ahead of her, then you need Braver Angels and they need you!!
Political differences are dividing family, hurting friendships, and slowing progress in our country. Braver Angels, a national grassroots organization, is working to bridge that divide. Abraham Lincoln once said “I don’t like that man. I must get to know him.” That is the premise of Braver Angels.
At our event, Randy Freeman, New York State Coordinator for Braver Angels and Sue Ruskin-Mayher will share a presentation and short film about Braver Angels.
This event is non-partisan, open to all, and free. Please come and learn what you can do to make your community and country whole again. Click here to RSVP.
The Challenge: Political Polarization
Do our politics have to be demonizing? Does it have to bring out the worst in us? Do our politics have to destroy the goodwill of our society? Is the dehumanizing of our fellow Americans something we should accept?
Affective political polarization (not only disagreement on issues but personal contempt and distrust) has been growing between us for at least 25 years. In other words the vitriol in American politics was a problem long before Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and the 2016 election.
Yet today, there is evidence to suggest that we are now as polarized as we have been since the Civil War. Americans no longer see their political opponents as simply wrong or misguided. They see them as enemies who must be defeated at all costs.
At Braver Angels, we do not accept this division. We reject the normalizing of this extreme polarization. We say “no” to the break down of political and social life that it brings.
Our work is about building civic trust in the USA. It is about healing the wounds between left and right. It is about challenging institutions to be better, building community together, and discovering what it means to be American in our time. Our work is about supporting a more perfect union. Our work is about inspiring the beloved community.
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it
must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory…will yet swell the chorus of
the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
- Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1861