Braver Angels

Braver Angels (formerly Better Angels) is a New York-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to political depolarization. The organization runs workshops, debates, and other events where "red" (conservative) and "blue" (liberal) participants attempt to better understand one another's positions and discover their shared values.

The organization states that it is the "largest, grassroots, bipartisan organization in America dedicated to reviving the communal spirit of American democracy." As noted by Cavendish, they say that their "method involves bringing politically diverse people together in small groups to listen empathetically to each others’ perspectives."

Founding
Braver Angels was founded by David Blankenhorn, Bill Doherty, and David Lapp shortly after the 2016 United States presidential election. The organization's original Better Angels name was inspired by Abraham Lincoln's plea for national unity at the close of his first inaugural address. The name was changed to Braver Angels in 2020 pursuant to a trademark infringement suit.

National conventions
Braver Angels states that it seeks to build a national movement and, since 2018, it has sponsored conventions for its members across the United States. For its first convention, in June 2018, Braver Angels selected 72 conservative and 72 liberal delegates. The organization reported that over 100 delegates signed "An American Declaration." In their declaration, the signers claim to represent 3,100 members in a call for an end of political polarization and their affirmation of "a shared faith that this land we love will again be touched by the better angels of our nature." The convention had musical performances by Peter Yarrow, Dana LaCroix, and Steve Seskin. The 2019 convention was held in St. Louis, MO. The delegates passed a platform and heard from speakers, including leaders from Black Lives Matter NY and the Tea Party in Cincinnati. The 2020 convention, planned for Charlotte, NC, was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic.

At its July 2023 convention in Gettysburg, PA, a featured speaker was Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who created the "Disagree Better" initiative of the National Governors Association. Gettysburg was chosen as the site of Lincoln's Gettysburg address, which inspired the organizations original name ("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."), as co-founder Blankenhorn told journalists. The convention included music and political sketches. A performance by Gangstagrass began with a skit, with co-founder Bill Doherty in a barber's chair getting a haircut by local barber. During the skit, Hawk Newsome of Black Lives Matter, chided the audience for "snickering" he'd heard when he had talked about reparations. The 2024 Braver Angels national convention was held on June 27-29 in Kenosha, WI. The program focused on four issues: "Abortion, Economic Inequality / Economic Growth, Free Speech / Hate Speech, and Immigration." Featured speakers included Jay Bhattacharya, Batya Ungar-Sargon, Jonathan Rauch, and Monica Harris of the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism. Besides political discussions, the convention schedule includes music and theatre: The New York Theatre Workshop has recruited local youth for a performance. On the first night, Braver Angels had a watch party for the Biden-Trump presidential debate. Braver Angels believes that theirs was the largest debate watch party in the U.S.

Workshops and debates
As its main activity, Braver Angels run conversations among Americans with opposing political views. Its flagship discussion format has been the Red/Blue workshops. The Red/Blue workshops are designed to facilitate understanding and conversations between conservative Reds and liberal Blues. Ideally, the number of Red and Blue participants is balanced for each session. The workshop was designed by Braver Angels co-founder, Prof. William Doherty, an expert in family social science at the University of Minnesota, based on therapy methods use in couples counseling. In a chapter for a book published by the American Psychological Association, Doherty "describes the origin and development of Braver Angels, with special attention to the workshops it offers, its initial impact. It connects some key decisions in the outreach of Braver Angels to citizen therapist principles."

Doherty's pilot effort was in December 2016, with weekend workshop in Ohio for 10 Clinton and 10 Trump supporters. The workshop principles are similar to those needed for married clients, as summarized by the WSJ, "Speak for yourself; don’t interpret what’s going on in the other person’s mind. Accept your own contribution to the problem—and that you can only change yourself. Focus on what you have in common: the shared history, goals, aspirations and values." In a typical format, the workshop starts with each color-coded group identifying the stereotypes of their group. They then share these with the other group. The stereotyping exercise is followed by one or more additional exercises: the fishbowl, where one group does all the talking on a topic, while the other group forms a circle around them to listen; the questions exercise, where mixed Red/Blue groups discuss their answers to questions that had been generated by each (Red or Blue) group; and the "How Can We Contribute" exercise, whereby red- and blue-identified participants are paired up and share in response to a multi-faceted prompt: "What can each of us do individually, what can our side do, and what might both sides do together to promote better understanding of differences and search for common ground?"

By April 2022, the organization had conducted "nearly 1,600 Red/Blue Workshops and 275 structured debates in all 50 states." The debates reportedly were shown to more than 15,000 people, with such speakers as former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, author Andrew Sullivan, and former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt.

In addition, Braver Angels offers "Braver Seminars," published works ("Braver Angels Publishing"), and convenes scholars and public intellectuals.

The group also created a "Skills for Bridging the Divide" workshop. In a 2.5 hour format, the workshop aims to convey information about meaningful, non-polarizing discussions, give participants some hands-on practice, and to convince people to do such bridge-building. This training covered three key listening skills -- paraphrasing, clarifying and acknowledging (or agreeing) -- and its speaking skills include pivoting, to introduce a divergent viewpoint, and offering one's own viewpoint, including "I statements" and expressions of concern. The training also cautioned people against pitfalls and counter-productive behavior. In the wake of the 2020 election, Braver Angels conducted 26 "Trustworthy Elections" workshops, guided by a national task force, and issued a report. The report highlighted 3 principles: “Voting should be easy. Cheating should be hard.” “Every citizen should have an equal say in who will govern them; this is done through free and fair elections.” “The American government will fail if candidates refuse to accept any outcome other than victory.” The final report made 26 recommendations in seven areas, including Gerrymandering in the United States, voting access, vote counting, voter identification, and "peaceful transition of power."

Organization
David Blankenhorn is the president of Braver Angels. Prior to Braver Angels, Blankenhorn worked to prevent the legalization of gay marriage; in 2012, he announced that he continues to believe gay marriage is morally wrong, but is in favor of its legalization as a political compromise. John Wood Jr. produces the Braver Angels podcast and YouTube channel. He is a Republican politician in LA county. The board of directors include Blankenhorn, social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt, and Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family.

The demographics of Braver Angels participants is mostly white, college educated, and older. While conventions and many workshops are designed for balanced representation, the organization reported that across its 2021 events, self-identified Democrats significantly outnumbered Republicans. In 2022, the organization's expenses were $2.9 million, mainly for "Bridging social divides" and public outreach, with year end net assets of $1.4 million, according to Braver Angels financial statements.

Although Braver Angels does not track their members' religiosity, Christian communities have played a significant role in the organization. For example, in 2018, churches in Florida requested, sponsored, and hosted Braver Angels events. In 2020, "Malice Toward None" was a Braver Angels initiative aimed at reducing partisan animosity within religious communities. (Cavendish 2023, p.13) In advance of its 2024 Convention, the Latter Day Saints Magazine promoted a local conversation series as well as registering delegates for the convention. In addition, an elder of the LDS church was a featured speaker at the 2023 Convention. Sociologist James Cavendish believes that religious groups should use the Braver Angels model, among others, to counter polarization in America and build more robust social relationships, regardless of political antagonism.

Podcast and publications
The Braver Angels Podcast began in 2017, hosted by a rotating group of Braver Angels leaders including David Blankenhorn, John Wood Jr., Alma Cook, April Lawson Kornfield, Ciaran O'Connor, and Mónica Guzmán. Past guests have included Bill Kristol, James Comey, Scott Adams, Jonathan Haidt, Coleman Hughes, Hawk Newsome, Carol M. Swain, and Greta Van Susteren. The group's website also showcases episodes of a podcast by John Wood Jr. with Bertrand Cooper and Dennis Prager.

The group's website promotes a 50-minute documentary about an early Red/Blue workshop, on April 2017 in Waynesville, Ohio, entitled Better Angels: Reuniting America. It was produced by Peter Yarrow and directed by Jim Brown.

Books published by Braver Angels leaders about depolarizing efforts, including Blankenhorn's In Search of Braver Angels, Guzman's I Never Thought of it That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times. (There are also books that highlight Braver Angels, such as Bomey's Bridge builders: bringing people together in a polarized age. )

Collaborations
Braver Angels has pursued collaboration with other organizations geared to civic discourse. Notably, it set up the "Braver Network" that lists dozens of organizations who are loosely affiliated. The network is co-chaired by Bridge USA, Institute for Local Government, and StoryCorps. For example, StoryCorps lists the Braver Angels' 1:1 conversations among its One Small Step recommendations.

The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) has sponsored about 200 Brave Angels debates on more than 75 college campuses, on many topics, with support from Braver angels and BridgeUSA. At the local level, Braver Angels developed alliances and interest groups, including a music community, a film club, a book club, technology lab, equality caucus, and faith caucus.

On occasion, media organizations have explicitly supported workshops, such as the USA Today Ohio Network publicizing Braver Angels workshop after the 2020 elections.

In another collaboration, Braver Angels adapted its "Skills for Bridging the Divide" workshop for a national climate advocacy organization. After a pilot run, Braver Angels ran 8 workshops for 403 participants, done online through Zoom. According to an evaluation of this effort, the participants reported that, by large margin, they improved their ability to set a constructive tone, in difficult conversations, and to "listen to people on the other side in a way that they felt heard." However, the evaluation conceded that the demographic of participants was not representative, i.e., older, female, white, and liberal. Furthermore, the study did not examine conversations with political conservatives or those who disputed climate change solution.

Political engagement
Braver Angels defines itself a "nonpartisan group whose mission is to study and strengthen civil society" with a focus on reducing polarization. Within this scope, its "Braver Politics" activities include skill workshops for candidates and elected officials, candidate debates, "neighborhood conversations," and "town halls" with political candidates. It also offers its flagship Red/Blue workships for elected officials or their staff.

For example, Braver Angels ran workshops for mayors in Minnesota, county commissioners in North Carolina, election day officials in New Hampshire, and with 60 members of the U.S. House of Representatives "Problem Solving Caucus."

Braver Angels provides its own certificate for its skills workshops for elected officials.

Scholarship on Braver Angels
Scholars who doubt that Braver Angels can actually reduce polarization include psychologist Peter Coleman. Coleman argues that animosity between groups is stronger than a single workshop can change: "Just meeting with other people, particularly once for a short period of time, is insufficient to changing people's attitudes, habits, the media they watch, the internet that they serve."

Alex Zamalin, author of Against Civility, The Hidden Racism in Our Obsession with Civility, argues that Braver Angels is only looking at civic politeness and thus does not address the power dynamics that are needed for political change''. ''

Out of Braver Angels' workshops, "Red/Blue workshops" have received the most scholarly investigation. The Red/Blue workshops have been characterized as "reciprocal group reflection." Scholarship on Braver Angels has included an examination of its meetings as artistic performances and as comparable to religious teachings, such as those dealing with reconciliation and creating opportunities to "listen attentively and empathetically to [people's] authentic concerns."

Scholars have also begun to investigate the effects of Braver Angels on political polarization. One study, which had undergraduate college students participate in Red/Blue workshops, found that "that depolarization is especially effective when it includes both informational and emotional components, such that citizens who are moved to empathize with outgroup members become more likely to internalize new information about them." One study found that Red/Blue workshop participants learned to get along with each other, understand each other's positions, and identify points of common interest, and improved their skills in relating across political differences.

The Braver Angels approach also has been used as a model to compare methodologies for mutual understanding between people from opposing partisan communities, such as "imagined dialogue" as an arts-oriented mode for improving empathy. Hartman et al. cover a variety of other organizations that aim to defuse partisan animosity, including AllSides, BridgeUSA, FairVote, Living Room Conversations, and Public Agenda.

Scholars seek to identify how Braver Angels workshops increase receptivity to conversations with political opponents. In a study of Red/Blue workshop methods, Oliver-Blackburn et al. found that Braver Angels facilitators effectively promoted dialogue by using five strategies: "greetings, acknowledging power differences, enforcing ground rules, listening actively, and providing appreciation for sharing." (p.62) Furthermore, they found that Braver Angels was successful due to three features of Red/Blue workshop design: "(a) Limiting assumptions through perspective-taking, (b) locating shared interests and commonalities, and (c) intentionally structuring the order of the workshop activities." (p.62) Researchers found that a crucial element for perspective-taking and conversations was the agenda order, allowing Blue and Red participants to first meet separately with their own in-group and safely explore their own viewpoints, before trying to listen and attend to people with an opposing perspective.