Depolarizing Within: Becoming a better angel in your own world

Americans are stressed out, scared and losing the ability to talk to anyone who doesn’t agree with their political views. The discourse has become toxic. But Bill Doherty and the organization he co-founded, Better Angels, has been bringing groups of “red” and “blue” Americans together to build bridges of respect and understanding to address their own communities’ challenges.  

The latest strategy from Better Angels grew out of Doherty’s observations conducting these red/blue group workshops across the country over the last two years.

Doherty, a professor in the Department of Family Social Science and licensed family therapist, witnessed  groups of like-minded individuals discussing those on the other side of political spectrum. Their descriptions of others were often derogatory and dismissive of their viewpoints.  

He believes this kind of discourse is fueling the conflict that is threatening our democracy and has driven Doherty to create a new workshop, one that takes individuals inward to see, understand and address their own biases to become “better angels.”

“The idea came to me in the fall when doing separate blue and red skills workshops: that most polarizing conversations occur within like-minded groups when they talk about the political ‘Other,’” says Doherty. “Although political polarization in some form has always been around, it was less problematic when people interacted more outside their own silos. Nowadays, people on the other side have become not just strangers but enemies.” 

So, said Doherty, the question became as the Better Angels grew: How to be an agent of depolarization within one’s own political community – and going even further upstream – how to depolarize oneself first.

“What if we learn the discipline of non-polarizing attitudes and words about the political “Other” with whom we do share a national past and future?” asks Doherty.

The new workshop will begin rolling out this fall and will give participants tools to depolarize themselves and skills to intervene in social situations when conversations veer toward deriding those who hold different political viewpoints. Doherty believes the workshop is valuable and necessary.  

“Being a depolarizer is not just being high-minded. It’s also being pragmatic about the future,” says Doherty. “Our current whipsaw approach to polarized policy-making leads to undoing each side’s policies every 4 years and the result is paralysis and cynicism about government.”

He quotes a Better Angels workshop participant, “Neither side is going to vanquish the other, so we better figure out how to get along and run the country together.”

More about Better Angels

Better Angels is a national nonprofit with a mission to depolarize America. Its leadership is half “red” and half “blue.”  

The Minnesota chapter of Better Angels has more information about workshops, meetings, and events.