On a fall foliage-filled Saturday before Election Day 2017, sixteen people got together in a suburban church basement just outside Washington, D.C. to hash out their political differences for seven hours. They started at 10 a.m.; they had a lot of ground to cover.
“In my house, we’ve trained my granddaughter to yell ‘no politics’ when someone mentions Trump or Obama,” said Paul Roche, a retired financial consultant.
The group laughed, but it underscored the fear that brought folks here for a day-long workshop organized by the bipartisan group Better Angels. The formula is simple: Eight self-declared conservatives and an equal number of progressives spend a day hashing out their differences, in the hopes that they’ll collectively come to a place that allows them to appreciate, if not exactly embrace, each other’s side.
[For more on this story by ANDREW SMALL, go to https://www.citylab.com/life/2...a-depolarize/545468/]
Photo: At a Better Angels workshop, left-leaning attendees Kevin Chen, Naomi Pena, and Donna Pittman list their side's biggest stereotypes. Ciaran O’Connor/Better Angels
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