Of your organization and what its purpose is . Guest we bring together republicans, democrats, independents, all three of your phone lines, to try to learn to respect and care for one another as citizens, despite our differences. And when possible, find Common Ground. Especially when it comes to ways to make a less divided and rank rancorous society. We think its important and necessary to save our country. Host go ahead. Guest we started a couple of years ago. We now have 8,500 members in all 50 states. Were very active across the country. And were growing rapidly. Host so how do you do that, specifically, how does this process work . Guest we bring together groups of citizens who disagree with one another strongly, politically, we Call Community meetings, Community Workshops and we get to know one another, ask each other questions and ultimately form local groups called alliances that Work Together across the divides, at the local level. And we have these all over the country and then we have an annual convention that brings people together nationally where we try to come up with policy reforms that we feel would make a less divided country. So its a grassroots effort number one, to deep hole arise ourselves as citizens, citizen to citizen, and also think of ways as we go stronger to affect the larger society. Host how did you come up with this concept . What led you to this . Guest right after the 2016 election, two friends of mine, david blatt, who lives in south lebanon, ohio, and bill doherty, who lives in minneapolis, minnesota, we decided to bring together 20 people in south lebanon, ohio, 10 who had just proudly voted for donald trump, and 10 who had just proudly voted for hillary clinton. This is three weeks after the election. To spend some time trying to talk with one another rather than about one another. And it was a big success. The people really liked it. They felt better about each other and the country, and so we knew we had something. So we have now had more than 400 of these gatherings across the about 15 to 20e of them every week now, all run by trained volunteers, so it is a spreading movement to bring together people, first at the local level and then Work Together nationally, for a less rancorous discussion where we respect one another as citizens, where we can find some Common Ground the most common thing people tell us after they begin to Work Together is, you know, we are less divided than we have been told. Host so walk us through if someone were to just stand aside, watch this process play out, give us a sense of how this works. Give us the mechanics. Guest well, the first thing we do when we get together is a Little Initiative that we call beyond stereotypes. So we usually divide into what we call red and blue. So if you lean conservative, thats red. If you lean liberal, thats blue. Then each side comes up with stereotypes that they think the other side has about it. So if youre red, what is the stereotype that liberals have about you . Well, you know, youre racist, you dont like immigrants, you dont care about the poor. If youre liberal, what are the stereotypes that you think conservatives have about you . You want government to solve everybodys problems, youre softhearted, everybody should get free stuff. And you want open borders. Then we discuss to what degree those stereotypes are false, because generally theyre more false than true. And also, what elements of truth there might be in them. So we talk to one another and kind of go beyond the idea of stereotypes and actually communicate with one another. And theres these things last usually a day. We have them on saturdays. We also have a threehour version that can happen in the evening. But the basic point of the thing is to have me as if i am a conservative, to have me express my views and also hear the other sides point of views in a good way. So that we can actually connect with one another as citizens rather than just finger point or exaggerate our differences. So so the point of it is, you so the point of it is, you know, i can listen to the other side and the other side can listen to me, we can find respect. Host our guest is with us until 9 30. If you want to ask him questions about his organization, the effort, larger issue of civility and politics, you can call us, its 2027488000 for democrats. Republicans, 2027488001. And independents, 2027488002. And you can text us at 2027488003. David blankenhorn, when you have these conversations or the people who participate, are there ground rules and who sets up the, i guess, makes sure that people adhere to those rules . Guest there are ground rules but theyre very simple and people agree to them in advance. The most important ground rule is that were here to listen and to be heard, but not to try to change anybodys mind. Were not trying to outargue another side. Were trying to say what we think, but also listen. The rest of the ground rules are Pretty Simple. Just be nice. And be respectful. So its a Pretty Simple the ground rules are simple. But the process has been atigned by professor doherty the university of minnesota and its a pretty evidencebased process. We do evaluations after each one of these things. And people leave these experiences less polarized than when they walked in the door. Thats a consistent finding. So it really does help people to make connections with others that they thought they probably couldnt connect with. And to feel better about that and to feel better about the future of the country. Host so were coming at a time where tomorrow is thanksgiving. People will be sitting down of different political stripes. Maybe, they talk issues of may talk issues of politics. What are the questions they should be asking each other from what you learned and from this experience, how should they be engaging each other with sense of learning more about where the other stands . Guest thanksgiving is often a difficult time. Lots of americans, its a great holiday, but sometimes lately you feel like, oh, my gosh, what if these contentious political arguments happen around the thanksgiving table . A lot of people do worry about that. Look, there is no magic formula to, as youne idea is suggested, to ask questions rather than make speeches. It is also better to ask questions of clarification rather than gotcha questions. A question of clarification is, tell me more about why you believe that. A gotcha question is, how can you possibly believe this, given such and such, where you kind of smuggle an accusation into the question. Ask questions, dont give speeches. And ask genuine questions of clarification rather than contentious kinds of accusation questions. Host but at the end of the day, i suppose both sides are so adhered to the idea that theyre right, that might make that difficult. Guest it does make it difficult. It makes it difficult for me and everybody. You know, one interesting thing is, they have done studies about this if you try to out argue the other person, telling them facts you do not think they are aware of and keep arguing, the only result is that both sides get more dug in. No one changes their mind as a result of that kind of arguing. So its really pointless. So its much better to try to get to know and also, if you can make it personal in the sense of, well, what maybe happened in your life to cause you to have this view . What experiences did you have . Than arguing information, if you try to find out where the other person is coming from, that is a much better approach to try to find something that you can have a good discussion about. Host if you want more of those skills for thanksgiving, if you go to the better angels website, you can find a list of those skills at that website. Mr. Blankenhorn, since you list yourself as a nonprofit, where do you get your funding from and does it come from one political stripe or the other . Guest no. We have something called the better angels rule and which is that we are evenly divided. We use the term red and blue, but lean liberal, lean conservative. We are evenly divided in our funding sources, our board of directors, our staff, our leadership team. That is an absolute rule that we have. About 25 of our money currently comes from membership dues. It is 12 a year to join better angels. You can go to betterangels. Org to join. I encourage everyone to do that. The rest comes from foundations, liberal leaning, right leaning and individual members who are able to give more than the 12. Host and people can find that online as far as your funding and the transparency there . Guest yes, they can get a list you know,that have, contributed. As i say, about 20 comes from our membership dues and our goal is to have that proportion grow we are a fairly new organization, we would like to have the majority of our funding comes rom membership dues, and we are keeping the membership dues low, 12 a year, so that everyone can join. I encourage people, if you care about this kind of effort that we think is necessary to save our country, go to betterangels. Org and see if you like what we are doing, sign up today. Host lets bring the callers into this. We will start off with joe in jasper, florida, republican line. You are on with our guest of better angels. Go ahead. Thank you for taking my call, first of all. I would like to tell mr. Blankenhorn i am so excited and thrilled, and i do plan on visiting the site and perhaps the organization. I would love to know if the topic of brotherly love ever comes up . Thats a great question. I do not know if you have seen, there is a book out by a guy named Arthur Brooks, and it is called love your enemy. It basically says the true meaning of civility is to have an inner desire to do good to your opponent. That is what we are going for here. So it really does take us to the concept of love. It really does. It means yes, being able to love the person, to want to do well to your opponent. It is a very profound issue and it goes to the heart of what we are doing. Host Arthur Brooks appearing on this network to talk about that book and what he found from that experience. Marie in gulfport, mississippi, democrat line. Go ahead. Happy thanksgiving. I started watching your show since the impeachment hearings. I had not watched in years and it is such a blessing to have your station have these scholarly, compassionate analysts who are doing good for our society. Thank you for that. I have to admit, i a at this moment in history partisan, because we have to have change in 2020 and we have to have change in some of our Southern States to take care of people better. But i so appreciate your approach that i will start spreading it on all the political websites, because i l that we have when not have not won in our arguments and racescause of people indulgn spewing of hatred, calling that campaigning for somebody. Tactic, let alone social change message. Thank you for putting this out. Websites sharing those with every source i can across the country. Guest that is very kind. Thank you. Host anything to add . Guest it is just that lots of people feel the way that my fr this is something people feel at a gut level. We find that we do not have persuade people if we have a problem on our hands. Many americans are heartsick at how far we have descended into raker and namecalling and. Udslinging there is a feeling among liberal conservatives or everybody in between and that our country is at stake, our democracy is at stake. If we cannot trust one another, our democracy wont work. Theres a natural desire for people to do better and all they need is an opportunity to put their values in action and we find people are very eager to do this. We found that they fostered a conversation between. Epresentative dean phillips talk to us about that exchange. It was terrific. Democratlican, one center staff to one of our better angel events, a workshop and it was very productive. These tend to be younger people aware tical politically aware. We need more of this, so it was a great experience. Im really grateful to the two representatives who did this and we helped with the first of many such efforts. Group who areific working on this problem. Northeast texas, independent line. I love your Organization Better angels and i will check it out and i love the comment about brotherly love. There is simply not enough of it. I would loveings to see our government do is get out of the business of everybodys religion. I dont think it should be discussed but in your private, personal lives and im all for much of what is happening in our government today, i dont know, as it always been like that . It is concerning to me when people think that certain officials arected now suddenly ordained to be this or that and had we get over that . I hope in your groups that you have, maybe we could address that and people just go back to worshiping privately. Ok color, got the point. It is a great question. Opinionsifferent within the organization. It is kind of a balance. Speaking, Many Americans religious beliefs are important to them. On the other hand, as you were saying, if it comes to much about attacking people on the phony,f religion, being that is harmful. It is a balance and something we have struggled with since the beginning. There have been errors where we. Ave done better or worse [inaudible] humility is just the belief that you dont know everything. Something wee would teach our children and we would naturally believe this about ourselves, but i dont know everything. Talking toit from others and can benefit from talking to others who disagree with me on something because they might know something that i dont know. This is very simple stuff but we. Ave lost it how does anybody know everything . That is what humility me. Talking toefit from other people you dont agree with. Was personal experience highlighted. You change that position and if i understand it, it is close to what you do today. I was very active in the whole gay marriage debate in the early 2000s. Testified in the prop eight and ive metfornia a guy in the course of this debate. I bet he has been on your program. He wrote a book called gay marriage, why it is good for america. We began as political enemies and become friends. He is a very strong advocate of gay rights. He is a gay man himself, so i husband michael and it wasnt through are doing or learning facts, but through getting to know him and he introduced me to other people. My stereotypes began to weaken, so this showed me that people tend to change their minds on the basis of relationships that they have rather than political arguing. Learnedr thing that i that if you change your mind then you will be heavily criticized. It seems if you change your mind on something, it can be healthy thing. In general and todays highly intolerable world if you change of mind off of thing, that can be considered bad stuff that experience i had on being both sides of a contentious issue, having some experiences that caused me to think about how we along, that and Jonathan Rauch helped me with this and he is a colleague of mine. That is one of the basis for better angels. If you want, go to the website. We will hear from peter in new york. Good morning. I think what you and your organization is doing is great, but i believe the problem is more in washington than it is among the public. 90 of the issues, politicians and they areee very small issues that divide people and republicans or democrats, it seems to be the tactic they are using is to demonize the other side in order to stay in power and using post of this of issues to separate people and not and bring people together. Today, mainstream mortgages thatbe in giving the public an opinion instead of the news. Believed in dialogue dialogue,elieved in but it seems to me the Mainstream Media is more concerned about molding opinion that giving the public the news. Those are strong points. I cannot personally agree with you. We are less divided than we are. Old theres a lot of Common Ground among citizens of the country. Most people realize that and you are right. Work. Zation can some politicians can use it to get elected. It works on some media environments, but most shows sensationalism, yelling and so to thatn be beneficial particular program, but you are absolutely right and it is time to take moreople control of this. We dont have to put up with this and what better angels is about it kind of an uprising against this environment that is so toxic and distractive that we dont have to put up with this. We want to be a major force in this country for the kind of return to decency, compromise, looking always to Work Together, respect across the divide. Not so much rancor and animosity and it is possible if we the people demand it. You get a sense that there is an inside the beltway approach and outside the beltway approach . There are plenty of wonderful people from washington, d. C. So i dont want to make that blanket assertion. In the area of National Politics , there tends to be a lot of grandstanding, less time legislating and more time fundraising and looking for publicity. A lot more people know each other more, a lot more persontoperson connection, so im not trying to demonize. They are wonderful people. Theres a difference between what happens in washington and what happens in the rest of the country. It is so good to hear you aking this morning stop this morning. Could come together for just about what is right and what is wrong. Im sure that the people, they know exactly who he is, they dont have a problem with it. Aware three, im well that people will believe what they want to believe. The truth is what you believe. Nd it is not being told thank you very much and have a good day. Meant sayingu Public People in saying things that are true and i do believe there is more of that than we have had in many years. It is a real tragedy. Alsops what you are referring to is we have more difficulty agreeing what the truth is, what the facts are because we have alternative interpretations of what the facts are so it can be confusing. There is less and less understanding and it makes it much more difficult for us to have a good conversation with one another. It is a very important problem. How long before the walls of the fence so to speak before the positions and a real conversation happens. At the end of seven hours, we are seeing dramatic. We measure this with survey questions and it is a big change. We see very similar levels of youre and changing [indiscernible] we have a College Program were College Stude