Braver Angels
From his perspective as a longtime observer of political discourse in the United States, Boston College Political Science Professor Peter Skerry believes that the toxicity and polarization in American politics have never been worse.聽
His observation is supported by polling data from the Pew Research Center that confirms that the political divide in America is steadily growing, with more than 60 percent of registered voters believing that those in the other party are 鈥渋mmoral, dishonest, and closeminded.鈥�
So, when Skerry was presented with an opportunity to become part of the solution, he readily embraced it, joining a volunteer-led citizen鈥檚 movement called Braver Angels, the nation鈥檚 largest cross-partisan organization dedicated to depolarizing politics.
鈥淚 am old enough to remember how divided America was over the Vietnam War and the concomitant cultural changes of the Sixties Generation as well as the turmoil around the Civil Rights movement and its aftermath,聽including the assassinations聽of the Kennedy聽brothers and Martin Luther King, Jr.,鈥� said Skerry.
Peter Skerry (Caitlin Cunningham)
鈥淏ut in many respects, I regard what America is currently experiencing as even more disruptive, disturbing, and threatening.聽 Braver Angels, whose goal is to 'inspire and equip Americans to practice courageous citizenship across political differences through skill-building, convening, and collaborative action,' is one of the few organizations that is genuinely attempting to overcome our rancorous divisions by getting ordinary Americans to sit down and just talk to one another across the divide.鈥澛犅�
Founded in the wake of the 2016 presidential election when two former colleagues, David Blankenhorn and David Lapp鈥攄eeply troubled by the vitriolic rhetoric engulfing the nation鈥攁greed to host a weekend meeting in southern Ohio among 10 or so supporters of Hillary Clinton and 10 supporters of Donald Trump with the goal of getting people to listen civilly to opposing views.
The success of their experiment led Blankenhorn and Lapp, along with University of Minnesota Professor Bill Doherty, to co-found Braver Angels, with the stated mission of "bringing Americans together to bridge the partisan divide and strengthen our democratic republic.鈥澛� The organization鈥檚 protocol remains to pair red and blue participants in equal numbers in political conversations with the hope of demonstrating that Americans with different views can find common ground.
Since 2024, the movement has made the divisive topic of immigration its primary focus, which led Blankenhorn to invite Skerry, a respected author and national expert on immigration policy, to serve as chair of the Immigration Policy Roundtable of its Citizen鈥檚 Commission on Immigration.聽 The Commission will then bring together the outcome of the Roundtable鈥檚 deliberations over the next year and a half with the results of on-going grassroots Citizens Conversations being conducted by Braver Angels.
鈥淚 saw assuming the chairmanship of the Immigration Policy Roundtable as a unique opportunity to engage with individuals and organizations鈥攎any of whom I have known and worked or debated with over the years鈥攊n a framework that fosters constructive engagement on perhaps the most divisive issue now facing our nation,鈥� said Skerry.
鈥淚 spent 13 years in Washington, D.C., and I feel comfortable dealing with people from various sides of the issue. I have also studied and followed immigration for more than 30 years. I hope that the Citizen鈥檚 Commission on Immigration, composed of people on all sides of the immigration divide, gives us credibility to successfully address this problem.鈥�
The Citizens Commission on Immigration focuses on three areas, designated as: Grassroots Americans, which features scores of Braver Angels events devoted to immigration, including Common Ground Workshops and Local Community Debates; National Leaders, which is centered around the Immigration Policy Roundtable and features a politically diverse group of nationally prominent experts and advocates; and Congress, with the goal of establishing ongoing conversations with members of Congress on immigration.
The Citizens Commission鈥檚 efforts will culminate in a Report to the Nation, outlining key immigration policy recommendations that reflect red/blue consensus. The report is scheduled to be released in 2027.聽
鈥淎mericans should expect a detailed account not only of what the array of advocates, including immigrant/immigration advocates; immigration restrictionists; and business interests, participating in the Roundtable has been able to agree on, but also of the points of agreement coming out of Braver Angels grassroots sessions of equal numbers of blue and red Americans in at least 100 different congressional districts across the nation,鈥� said Skerry.
鈥淭he report will reconcile and synthesize these findings and recommendations with the ultimate goal of creating guidelines on immigration policy.鈥�
“ Braver Angels' approach is so important to toning down the rhetoric and mistrust engulfing U.S. politics because it is focused on reminding Americans how to exchange viewpoints in an environment that has become saturated with various media that thrive on disagreement and controversy. ”
The commission is hosting its third plenary meeting of the Immigration Policy Roundtable in Washington on December 11, at which Skerry will present a discussion paper on ways of addressing the presence of the estimated 14 million undocumented living in the United States. At the same session, his Braver Angels colleague David Martin, University of Virginia Law School professor and former general counsel of the INS, will present another perspective in a paper titled 鈥淩esolute Enforcement Is Not Just for Restrictionists.鈥� All the Roundtable participants and attendees will then join each other for a reception at a nearby hotel.聽
鈥淭he Immigration Roundtable is engaging immigration advocates and restrictionists in focused discussions on areas of agreement and disagreement,鈥� said Skerry.
鈥淭he immigration advocates have been the hardest to engage. The 2024 elections shocked them, but they realize that these conversations are useful, and I am happy to be involved in convening them. It is not always easy, but bringing people together is what I like to do.鈥�
It is this type of respectful public discourse on difficult topics that has led to Braver Angels鈥� growing popularity. Since its inception nine years ago, the organization has sponsored some 5,600 events that attracted nearly 70,000 participants. It now features 125 local alliances nationwide.
In addition to the Immigration Policy Roundtable, Braver Angels also sponsors the Scholars Council, an independent and politically balanced network of scholars who support bringing Americans together via debates, podcasts, and public forums to bridge the political divide. Skerry is joined on the Scholars Council by 情色空间 Concurrent Professor of Law and Philosophy Tom Kohler and Senior Lecturer of the Humanities and Political Science Martha Bayles, as well as scholars from leading public and private universities coast to coast.
鈥淧eople are being drawn to Braver Angels because to varying degrees they are experiencing feelings of anger, fear, exhaustion, and hope,鈥� said Skerry.聽鈥淭he movement has an impressively effective methodology of getting ordinary, typical Americans to relearn how to talk to one another about challenging and controversial issues.鈥�
Colleagues say that Skerry鈥檚 background and experience make him well suited to chair this important initiative. A former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and research Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, he served as co-director of the聽Dialogue on Islam in America at AEI and as co-convenor of the Brookings-Duke Immigration Policy Roundtable, which in 2007-2008 convened a disparate group of academics and researchers to engage the topic.
He is the author of聽Counting聽on the Census: Race, Group Identity, and the Evasion of Politics, and聽Mexican聽Americans: The Ambivalent Minority,聽which was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He has researched and written about Muslim communities and organizations in the United States and is now working on a book about U.S. immigration policy and politics entitled Restoring Realism to America鈥檚 Immigration Debate.
鈥淏raver Angels鈥� approach is so important to toning down the rhetoric and mistrust engulfing U.S. politics because it is focused on reminding Americans how to exchange viewpoints in an environment that has become saturated with various media that thrive on disagreement and controversy,鈥� said Skerry.
鈥淲e have to lower the temperature and find areas of agreement and trust. I remain hopeful that we can do so.鈥�