Braver Angels

Wynette and her husband are a farming family, growing organic rice, beans, wheat, and popcorn in nearby Pleasant Grove.  She serves as the co-chair for the Sacramento Braver Angels and  helped create one of their newest programs called, "Walk a Mile in My News".  Wynette enjoys bringing diverse people together for the common good and today she will be speaking to us about  "Healing the Divide by Understanding Our Differences".    

Braver Angels was inspired by the words of Abraham Lincoln, who not only called on Americans to summon the “better angels” of our nature — but called on us to find the courage needed to pursue a more perfect union, “with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right.”

To meet the current moment, at this time of national crisis, we need more than civility. We need to challenge ourselves to work together when we disagree. We need bravery.

Politics is tough. It always has been. American politics is competitive, thrilling, frustrating – and infuriating. The stakes are high. Issues are important. Outcomes matter. This is why we care, and should care, about our politics. But do our politics have to be demonizing? Does it have to bring out the worst in us? Do our politics have to destroy the goodwill of our society?  Is the dehumanizing of our fellow Americans something we should accept?

Affective political polarization (not only disagreement on issues but personal contempt and distrust) has been growing between us for at least 25 years. In other words the vitriol in American politics was a problem long before Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and the 2020 election. Yet today, there is evidence to suggest that we are now as polarized as we have been since the Civil War. Americans no longer see their political opponents as simply wrong or misguided. They see them as enemies who must be defeated at all costs.