We've discussed bridge-building since the rise of the Tea Party following Obama's election. (Remember the Coffee Party?). But it takes 2 to dialogue and there is no one on the other side who is interested in true dialogue.
I'm building a deep canvass training program ("people vote because of who they love") that is consistent with this message. Seeking early clients who knock on doors or train people who knock on doors willing to give feedback -- please DM me! or email daniel at type2dialogue dot com. canvasstraining.org
I also built this random other tool to give feedback on your reddit profile if you communicate more persuasively/lovingly and less small tent
As hard as it is to do, I am convinced that meeting every supposed attack as a call for love, and answering that call is the only way to peace, and deep inside, everyone knows this.
Radical love is a political force to contend with.
In 2024, Changing The Conversation Together had 16,000+ conversations with Philadelphia voters about the people we love and what we can learn from them. It’s remarkable how many people open up to this and how wonderful it can be for all involved. When we compare the love we have for those we have to the behavior of Trump and the MAGA movement, it becomes obvious that it’s the complete opposite.. It’s incredibly practical. Despite focusing on neighborhoods with large numbers of people at risk of not voting 79% of those people we spoke with voted in 2024, which is 19 points greater than their comparable neighbors. This is despite the historic drop off in Democratic voting, which was even worse in these neighborhoods. Talking about people we love, and getting strangers to open up about people they love can be contagious and beautiful. The best part of it is that you don't need to be an expert in politics to have an impact. You just to need to be willing to workshop your stories and get trained in how to deliver them.
We've now had almost 30,000 conversations like this since 2020 in Philly. And our evaluations always show that the people we speak to are much more likely to vote after speaking with one of our volunteers. You can read our most recent impact report on our site. You can also sign up to learn how to do this at one of our canvasses on our website:
Our campaign's theory of change involves "bridging with Trump's base" as a major component and we are developing a toolkit that will help grassroots groups do just that.
Micah, I loved this post! It reminded me so much of our mutual friend, the late Randy Kehler, who touched on these very points in his wonderful short piece, "Nonviolence is also..." Randy saw things so clearly and believed in the importance of deep listening, compassion, and humility as essential ingredients of nonviolence.
Nice write-up of the core challenge and task of countering polarization. I’ve had my eye on Radical Love in Turkey and other campaigns. The basic goal is to refocus people on how we are connected and share common values and threats, which speaks to the focus of your newsletter. One can do this via public information campaigns that elevate positive values.
I’m examining this as the feature of rebuilding democracy as you fight the autocrat’s divide-and-conquer propaganda. Thanks Micah! - AC (Resisting Project 2025 Substack)
American politics has been extremely violent for much of our history. Civil War anyone?
I remember reading something that it finally took the elite (think JP Morgan et Al) to agree to make politics much more boring. Violence (unions etc.) was simply not good for business.
So for a while we had low(er) participation and boring politics with both parties very much the same. This was good for business.
Will the current elites do the same thing? Who would they be? Do they care enough?
Who will say "Senator, have you no shame?" to Trump and the GOP?
We've discussed bridge-building since the rise of the Tea Party following Obama's election. (Remember the Coffee Party?). But it takes 2 to dialogue and there is no one on the other side who is interested in true dialogue.
Not everyone who voted for Trump is "on the other side," and it is not true that "no one" who voted for him is interested in true dialogue.
The challenge is finding them.
I'm building a deep canvass training program ("people vote because of who they love") that is consistent with this message. Seeking early clients who knock on doors or train people who knock on doors willing to give feedback -- please DM me! or email daniel at type2dialogue dot com. canvasstraining.org
I also built this random other tool to give feedback on your reddit profile if you communicate more persuasively/lovingly and less small tent
As hard as it is to do, I am convinced that meeting every supposed attack as a call for love, and answering that call is the only way to peace, and deep inside, everyone knows this.
Radical love is a political force to contend with.
In 2024, Changing The Conversation Together had 16,000+ conversations with Philadelphia voters about the people we love and what we can learn from them. It’s remarkable how many people open up to this and how wonderful it can be for all involved. When we compare the love we have for those we have to the behavior of Trump and the MAGA movement, it becomes obvious that it’s the complete opposite.. It’s incredibly practical. Despite focusing on neighborhoods with large numbers of people at risk of not voting 79% of those people we spoke with voted in 2024, which is 19 points greater than their comparable neighbors. This is despite the historic drop off in Democratic voting, which was even worse in these neighborhoods. Talking about people we love, and getting strangers to open up about people they love can be contagious and beautiful. The best part of it is that you don't need to be an expert in politics to have an impact. You just to need to be willing to workshop your stories and get trained in how to deliver them.
We've now had almost 30,000 conversations like this since 2020 in Philly. And our evaluations always show that the people we speak to are much more likely to vote after speaking with one of our volunteers. You can read our most recent impact report on our site. You can also sign up to learn how to do this at one of our canvasses on our website:
https://ctc4progress.org/
Our campaign's theory of change involves "bridging with Trump's base" as a major component and we are developing a toolkit that will help grassroots groups do just that.
Micah, I loved this post! It reminded me so much of our mutual friend, the late Randy Kehler, who touched on these very points in his wonderful short piece, "Nonviolence is also..." Randy saw things so clearly and believed in the importance of deep listening, compassion, and humility as essential ingredients of nonviolence.
Nice write-up of the core challenge and task of countering polarization. I’ve had my eye on Radical Love in Turkey and other campaigns. The basic goal is to refocus people on how we are connected and share common values and threats, which speaks to the focus of your newsletter. One can do this via public information campaigns that elevate positive values.
I’m examining this as the feature of rebuilding democracy as you fight the autocrat’s divide-and-conquer propaganda. Thanks Micah! - AC (Resisting Project 2025 Substack)
https://www.instagram.com/p/DOgml_uibM7/
Imagine
American politics has been extremely violent for much of our history. Civil War anyone?
I remember reading something that it finally took the elite (think JP Morgan et Al) to agree to make politics much more boring. Violence (unions etc.) was simply not good for business.
So for a while we had low(er) participation and boring politics with both parties very much the same. This was good for business.
Will the current elites do the same thing? Who would they be? Do they care enough?
Who will say "Senator, have you no shame?" to Trump and the GOP?