(June 19) Where, pray tell, is common ground?
Almost everybody agrees that American politics, which always have been rambunctious, have devolved into such toxicity that civil conversations appear impossible. Every reasonable person wants this to change. Indeed, a bipartisan poll released May 27 in the Washington Post shows that “an astounding 94 percent of voters agreed with the statement that ‘It is important that both Democrats and Republicans come together to solve the problems that are facing America.’”
In response, all across the country, groups are springing up with the goal of re-teaching people how to communicate with each other for mutual benefit even amidst differing philosophies, ideologies and cultures.
It’s tough to tell whether these groups will do any good, but anyone of goodwill should hope they do — and, where possible, help them.
It so happens that at least two groups in New Orleans and one in Baton Rouge are active in such endeavors. Last week, this newspaper reported on the Baton Rouge outlet of a national group called Braver Angels, which aims at getting the political Left and Right “to change how they think about one another.”
In New Orleans, a group about three years old called the Neutral Ground (not to be confused with Kaare Johnson’s excellent local radio show of the same name) hosts biannual “robust” forums with subject-matter experts on specific public-policy issues, such as school choice and incarceration. It now is planning its fall event, this one on the pros and cons of state tax incentives for business relocations.
“We have a relentless focus on elevating the conversation around civil discourse,” said founder John Landrum.
Meanwhile, the similarly named group Common Ground, an affiliate of the internationally acclaimed Search for Common Ground, is right now recruiting volunteers (tentative deadline: June 27) for its second local project. The first project, cleverly named Reconstructing Reconstruction, partnered in 2024 with a reconciliation-focused group called the Plessy and Ferguson Initiative to commemorate the corridor of Black businesses and residences that was displaced when Interstate 10 was built…. [The full column is at this link.]
