Bridging - Stories and Advice

I’ve known Jeff and Jeannie for 25 years (yikes, that is a big number!)  They are a couple with three young adult children and they live in the Chicago area.  We met at Chez Bob’s Cafe, our “regular” Racine spot, for a nice lunch and conversation.  Both shared their stories and perspectives with us and Jeff then helped us consider the answer to the questions: “why are there such divisions in America today” and “what might Dave and I do to make use of our Listening Tour.”  Below are some of the highlights from this conversation.

Cleveland Childhood

Jeannie grew up in an upper middle class, racially diverse suburb of Cleveland in the 60’s and 70’s.  Her school district integrated before busing was required (so as to not be included in the Cleveland busing program).  As a result Jeannie, who is white and Jewish, had black classmates and friends. She remembers distinctly going home with a white classmate to his house and meeting his mother, who to her surprise was black.  It turns out her friend was abandoned at birth and was adopted by a black couple.

Jeannie’s father was a small business owner with a union workforce.  Both her parents played roles in military intelligence during WWII.  And across her family have been a number of service members.  So she grew up surrounded by a strong sense of patriotism toward the US and its armed services.

Weekends were spent at a “country house” where her father liked photography and gardening.  He did not own guns.

Jeff launching his reflections on Divisions and Bridging - Attentive audience of Jeannie and Dave

In the 70’s Cleveland had a series of civic problems -- poor mayoral leadership, environmental disasters (river catching fire), and an economic collapse.  For Jeannie’s family, this was the subject of dinner conversation and humor. The pride they held (and continue to hold) for the city was for the arts and medicine (Cleveland Clinic) both of which grew out of generations of generous benefactors.

Jeannie’s describes her family as “Christmas Tree Jews.”  Her father helped found a synagogue and was a non-Zionist Jew, not supporting Theodor Herzl's vision for Israel. He went further and formed the Northeast Ohio Committee on Middle East Understanding (NOCMU) which brought together Palestinians, Christians and Jews to discuss Middle East peace.  This was not popular among many in the Cleveland Jewish community.

Jeannie is an actor and performs in several performances in the Chicago area each year.

Staten Island Dairy

Jeff grew up on Staten Island, as a fifth generation European Jew.  His great-grandfather purchased some land on Staten Island and raised chickens and cows.  By the time Jeff was a child, it had become a very successful Dairy.  Jeff recalls that his last name was on the breakfast table of all homes on Staten Island growing up.  His family was prominent.  At the same time he was influenced by the values of his grandfather who was as much a blue collar dairy man as a big businessman.  During his years attending a private high school in Brooklyn in the early 70’s, Jeff was influenced by the social movements of the day, particularly feminism.  His Judaism was more religious than Jeannie's, and he attended a conservative synagogue.  Participating in JCC (Jewish Community Center) activities were a large part of Jeff’s non-school social life.

Professionally, Jeff has worked for a community bank setting up business incubators in Chicago and Cleveland.  He has served as the President of the high school school board in their Chicago area town.  He was also a lawyer in New York for many years. For the past twenty years, however, Jeff has consistently worked in the space of “bridging.”  This is the effort to find common ground among parties who otherwise cannot see how to make progress.  His work has put him on the Board of several national organizations, including Convergence, a non-profit that uses a systematic method to address fractional issues: education and health care, to name two.  The process is long and arduous but along the way it brings in the various stakeholders, builds trust, refines and chooses the one or two most important issues and then works to tackle them.

Divisions in America, and what is to be done?

We asked Jeff to come prepared to help us understand the background on America’s political divides, his approach to build bridges, and any thoughts on whether and where a Listening Tour like ours might fit in.  Jeff popped open his iPad and walked us through a high level presentation which did just what we asked.  [If you’d like the deck, I’ll put you in touch with Jeff.]

Our RV traveling library.

Jeff began his mini-lecture “Political Polarization and Bridge Building” with quick rundown on the writers and thinkers in this “bridging space.”  You can see from the photo of Jeff’s book shelf (and ours) that there is a lot to be read.  Jeff is far ahead of us...but at least we have some of the books on our shelf in Dave’s RV.

How bad is it...historically speaking?

Jeff showed us slides of the number of votes where US congress votes party line.  Since the 50’s the curve looks logarithmic.  It’s scary.  But then he shows us similar data stretching back to 1879 and we see that the time period from the turn of the 20th Century to the 1980’s actually was an exception which included much more “across the aisle” voting than previously.  So, while partisanship is as high as ever, it is not new.

Jeff's library..books which he has actually read!

What are the causes?

Jeff starts by listing nine culprits.  Then he talks about Core Divisions and Political Frames.  The point is, this is not a simple cause/effect problem.  

Jeff’s culprits:

1. Geographic Sorting (people moving to live with people who think/ identify like they do)

2. Gerrymandering (redrawing of districts to make them “safe” to one party -- encouraging more partisan elected officials who don’t need to appeal to “the other side.”)
   
3. Internet (the speed effect -- all news is immediate, information is overwhelming)
   
4. Echo Chamber (we choose to “tune into” the news, people, information that we agree with: this reinforces our beliefs)
   
5. Activist influence in primaries (the revised primary process, beginning in the 1970's favors extreme voters and influences the “winning” candidates)
   
6. Donor/ Interest Group Influence (Citizens United, the power of labor unions in politics)
   
7. Big Data (the ability to narrow and refine the message by zip code/ voter profiles)
   
8. Breakdown of Governing Norms (the “changing of the rules” to win legislation - filibuster, etc.)
   
9. Return to Status Quo (Back to political party discipline last seen before WW

But wait, there’s more!   Core Divisions:

1. Economic (the role of business in society, the growing wealth inequality)
   
2. Religion (Evangelical Christian, Liberal faith traditions, other world religions, other fundamental faiths)
   
3. Race (Black, Brown, White, Native American)
   
4. Individual and Community Values (differing priorities -- duty, honor, caring, freedom, authority, etc.)
   
5. The Role of Government (Government can’t do anything right, shrink it; Government does many things well and can be the most efficient solution to some national challenges)
   
6. Insider/ Outsider (Distrust of institutions, elites vs. the people, view of immigrants, of involvement in international affairs, tribalism within our communities)

And more… Political Frames and Power Bases

Progressivism, Liberalism, Conservative, Libertarianism, Nationalism, etc.

Deep and Even Divisions

And all these divisions are accentuated by the nation being both Evenly and Deeply divided (as discussed by Ron Brownstein in The Second Civil War)  Nationally and in many states, the separation between Republican and Democrats are close.  This recent election is an example.  The swing from Republican to Democratic control of the House and Senate are others.  This is the “Evenly.”  But with the rest of the divisions the divisions are also “Deep.”  This is different from the late 19th century when the divisions were deep but the Republican Party dominated.

And Finally...ALL sides are culpable.  For example, I jumped to list Citizens United and Jeff in his calm, measured way, reminded me of the power of Liberal money flowing into elections.

What Can We Look Forward To?

Jeff lists three ways this division can change. 1. One side prevails.  2. A common crisis or enemy brings the sides together.  3. We find ways to work together.  He is skeptical about counting on either the first or second.  And the third is very difficult.  Nonetheless, this is the work upon which he is focused.

What Can Lead to Bridges?

Again we have a list.  And each is being pursued by many organizations and efforts… mostly on small scale.

1. New and reformed institutions (this the work of No Label and others, trying to work to influence the WAY congress works.)
   
2. Relationships and Civil Society (this is where Jeff puts our Listening Tour.  An effort to get people talking with each other to build understanding and “strengthen the middle.”)
   
3. Bridge Building Policies and Projects (this is the type of work Convergence and other organizations are taking on to tackle issues -- some groups are issue focused, some are process focused.
   
4. Changing the Story. (This work is getting at the deep stories of Americans which often contradict each other.  And crafting a new story which brings people together. “We are a nation built on Judeo-Christian values codified by our Founding Fathers.” vs. “We are a nation built by the hard work of a constant flow of immigrants from around the world.”)  Jeannie adds that this is an area where the arts can play a role..film, novels, plays...can help groups conceive of new stories which may bridge disparate groups.

...and where might our Listening Tour fit in?

Dave and I are careful not to promise ANYTHING but the resulting blog from our Tour. But we do dip a toe into the water of “what’s next” by asking Jeff where he thinks our work might fit.  He comes up with a (surprise!) list of two ideas:

1. Take your Listening Tour work “on the road.”  Create people to people, like exchanges.  Get lot of people out listening to each other.  This he groups under the Relationship and Civil Society work.
   
2. Ruminate on what you have heard and craft one or more stories (Changing the Story) which threads together what you have heard and learned.  Get everyone to buy in.

With gratitude to Jeannie and Jeff for driving up to Racine from Chicago, sharing their stories and helping us put our work in a larger context, we gave them a tour of Dave’s RV and said good bye (for now).

-- Peter