The following article summarizes the original event which is listed below the summary.
September speaker decries political tribalism
In a highly interactive session, Family Social Science Professor Bill Doherty and his audience shared their concerns about the intense polarization of American politics today.
The large gathering for UMRA’s meeting in the Campus Club West Wing voiced many reasons for attending—my family is so divided, my attitudes toward the other end of the political spectrum have become too severe—and identified many culprits for the breakdown, including social media, self-segregation by political party, and loss of respect for science.
Doherty described Better Angels, a national nonprofit he helped found after the 2016 election. Its beginning came when two friends decided to convene a small number of “blues” and “reds” in southeastern Ohio for an experiment in defusing polarization. They asked Doherty, a family therapist with long experience assisting couples on the verge of divorce, to help them develop a model for helping political opposites understand each other and find common ground.
The experiment was so successful it quickly ballooned. A bus tour to 15 towns suggested that people everywhere were worried about polarization and eager to reduce it. Growing attention from national media fueled further interest. Today, Better Angels is operating citizen workshops in more than half the states of the U.S. and is beginning to pilot workshops for politicians.
Better Angels’ goal is to depolarize America, not to make it purple. Doherty described techniques used in its workshops, which always involve equal numbers of red and blue participants, and listed some of the skills they promote: be curious; don’t make assumptions; don’t try to change the other’s mind.
He concluded, “I have always wanted to be bilingual, and now I am; I speak red and blue. But the better angel in me is very worried about this nation.” He directed his audience to better-angels.org to become members ($10 per year) and get involved in the movement.
—Chip Peterson, immediate past president
Beyond Polarization: Bridging the Red/Blue Divide in Communities
Tue, September 25, 2018, at 4pm
Campus Club Terrace, 4th Floor Coffman Memorial Union, 300 Washington Avenue SE, Minneapolis 55455
Bill Doherty to speak about communicating across political cultures
We must not be enemies. 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, 1861
Our era may be the most divisive in the U.S. since the Civil War. Yet polls suggest even the hyper-partisan yearn for greater unity and civility. Our September speaker, William Doherty, Ph.D., is doing something about it. In a talk entitled, “Beyond Polarization: Bridging the Red/Blue Divide in Communities,” he will tell us about a remarkable nationwide effort to help people with differing views learn to speak and listen respectfully to each other.
Doherty, a professor in the U of M’s Department of Family Social Science, directs the department’s Citizen Professional Center, which seeks to prepare professionals for effective democratic engagement with communities. He has developed a model of grassroots organizing among parents and other citizens around cultural, community, and health issues. As a therapist, he works with couples on the brink of divorce.
Drawing on these various strains, Doherty co-founded a citizen initiative to help restore the fraying social fabric in American society following the 2016 presidential election. Since then, Better Angels (better-angels.org) has spread to 25 states and been featured widely in local and national media.
Doherty has played a pivotal role in developing Better Angels’ system of workshops. Ranging in length from a couple hours to a full weekend, the workshops bring together equal numbers of “reds” and “blues” to seek common ground. Several principles guide the workshop exercises. Participants should seek to understand rather than to change minds, make “I” statements rather than statements presented as facts, voice only their own opinion and not characterize the other side’s. The end goal is to reach, in Doherty’s words, an “accurate disagreement” that can lead to mutual understanding.
To illustrate Doherty’s techniques: in one exercise, while blues observe, reds discuss stereotypes they think blues harbor about them. Then reds listen to a similar conversation among blues. In another, blues may discuss the balance between LGBT rights and religious freedoms while reds observe, after which reds discuss an issue while blues listen. In all exercises, a direct conversation between the two sides follows. Whether you are concerned about the body politic or panicked about political tempers at your next Thanksgiving dinner, this promises to be a stimulating session.
—Chip Peterson, immediate past president
RSVP by Monday, September 17
Prepayment of $20 per person.
Annual prepayers, please make reservations for this event.
Reserve and Pay Online
Or, send your check payable to UMRA to:
UMRA Reservations
c/o Judy Leahy Grimes
1937 Palace Ave., St. Paul MN
55105-1728
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Please honor the reservation deadline; to cancel, please call by Monday, September 17.
Parking: $6 maximum in University ramps with UMRA’s discount coupon. No reservations for this event.
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