It’s clear that a healthy democracy is important, but what constitutes a healthy democracy and how do we get there? 

Braver Angels is a national, NY based nonprofit organization, whose mission is to “ … inspire and equip Americans to practice courageous citizenship across political differences through skill building, convening and collaborative action.” The organization requires maintenance of a red/blue balance in its national leadership.

Braver Angels was born on the day after the 2016 presidential election when 3 men, David Lapp, David Blankenthorn, and Bill Dougherty, the latter two of whom are marriage and family therapists, acted out of concern about the degree of animosity between Clinton and Trump supporters. They managed to get 11 Clinton and 10 Trump supporters together for 2 days of discussion, moderated by the family therapists. By the end of that weekend the results impressed everyone, including the therapists. The group parted with hugs and well wishes across the political divide. The experience was so powerful that the 3 founders took the show on the road across the country, with equally positive results everywhere they went. This morphed into a national organization that currently has 131 local alliances across all 50 states, and which sponsors an annual, well attended national convention. 

Braver Angels Oregon 

There are very active alliances in Portland and the Willamette Valley, with 7 alliances over the state.

BASO (Braver Angels Southern Oregon) is a mere “proto alliance” for want of a red co-chair. Please contact us with any help or ideas re finding a red leaning cochair.

Current activities include:

  • Southern Oregon Bridge Building Coalition. The idea is that any group working to bridge the partisan divide would meet online quarterly to briefly review their progress and new initiatives with the goal of reducing redundancy and enhancing collaboration in Southern Oregon. We are communicating with several potential participants and hope to have a first meeting in the next 6 mo.
  • Candidate / issue forums. We would like to collaborate with CRG and League of Women Voters, with CRG focusing on questions re: ethics and competency, LWV focusing on current local issues, and BA focusing on interest in, and ability to collaborate across parties.
  • ORUP- the Oregon Rural Urban Project: This is frankly impressive in its energy, scope, goals, and accomplishments. 
    • Phase 1 was a well-attended and constructive statewide debate on the proposition “Oregon’s Rural-Urban Divide is Insurmountable “.
    • Phase 2 involves Townhalls and Moderated Discussions in every county to gather and record the concerns of rural citizens who feel sufficiently unheard and disenfranchised to form a movement to secede from the state of Oregon.
    • Phase 3 uses Braver Politics to prepare the legislature to listen to rural concerns. A successful open house was held on Feb 16, during which Red-Blue pairs of Braver Angels held  15 minute meetings with individual legislators to explain ORUP and encourage them to join the bipartisan caucus. 

Braver Angels (nationally)

Nationally, Braver Angels provides opportunities for a meaningful exchange of information between parties with different points of view by facilitating:

  • Workshops which include:
    • Red/Blue, Common Ground, Depolarizing Within, Families and Politics, Disagreeing Better, Public Policy and Race, Skills for Social Media, Being Red/Blue in a Blue/Red Environment, and several faith-sponsored workshops. These can be explored at https://braverangels.org
  • Red-blue conversations on controversial topics, both one-on-one and group conversations. And now, courtesy of AI, one can go to the BA dojo and spar (practice communication skills) with an AI master communicator! 
  • Debates with well trained moderators who maintain a strict format that fosters real communication
  • Podcasts 
    • The “BA Podcast” with red and blue co-hosts. 
    • “A Braver Way” with Monica Guzman author of “I Never Thought of it That Way”
  • Projects
    • Trustworthy Elections: Equal numbers of red leaning and blue leaning individuals were brought together from 27 states from 2020 to 2023 to discuss what would constitute a trustworthy election. Over 100 hours of moderated discussion led to 23 consensus recommendations. Find details at https://braverangels.org/trustworthy-elections/
    • Braver Politics:  A nationwide effort to improve cooperation across party lines, spearheaded by Elizabeth Doll. Two of the trainings- “Managing Difficult Conversations with Colleagues” and “Managing Difficult Conversations with Constituents” might prove helpful in Josephine County.   https://braverangels.org/about-braver-politics/
    • Citizen Led Solutions: CLS helps communities break free from polarization and gridlock by building trust, forging common-ground solutions, and following through to real results.   https://braverangels.org/citizen-led-solutions/

Braver Angels would love to collaborate with CRG in some form. Possibilities include:

Providing workshops either to CRG members or to target groups, 

Working together on candidate/issue forums, and 

Utilizing a Citizen Led Solutions approach to address local issues. 

Finally, we are very impressed with CRG’s practice of healthy democracy! and look forward to sharing ideas.