Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Reducing Political Divides Must – and Can – Occur at Massive Scale

Reducing Political Divides Must – and Can – Occur at Massive Scale

American flag, megaphone

Photo by Mikhail Nilov/pexels.com

Efforts to bring the country back together must collectively achieve massive scale, impacting at least 85 million Americans (and probably more). It may seem daunting, but the right efforts can plausibly achieve this goal.

These efforts include what is sometimes called “ depolarization ” or “ bridge-building,” though initiatives must go well beyond today’s overwhelmingly conversation-based methods to achieve this scale. Structural reforms are another key element.


In terms of America’s democratic stability, the most pressing need for these efforts comes from dramatic misperceptions of the threat posed by everyday Americans from the other political party. Americans are much less supportive of breaking democratic norms than the other side believes, think members of the other party dehumanize them more than twice as much as in reality, and overestimate the share in the other party supportive of political violence by more than 10x.

This is coupled with both short-term and long-term increases in “ affective” (emotional) polarization.

These misperceptions and negative emotions are widespread among the American public. Thus, any efforts to deal with them must also be widespread.

A low-end estimate for the number to target is over 85 million when looking at the number of 2024 voters, divided by political affiliation who have a “ very unfavorable ” view of the other party.**

Add in some non-voting adults, soon-to-be voting teenagers, those with only unfavorable (instead of very unfavorable) views of the other party, and so on, and the target audience quickly blows past nine digits to over 100 million.

How can we meaningfully affect this many people?

Americans’ views of each other can change via either the information environment or conversations. The information environment offers much more obvious avenues for scale, though messaging about conversations can contribute.

Messaging and stories in the information environment from various sectors can directly correct negative misperceptions of each other. See social media content from Builders and All We Share, the goals of Bridge Entertainment Labs, and top-performing video interventions from the Strengthening Democracy Challenge led by Stanford. One of the authors, James, is Co-Founder and Executive Director of More Like US, which offers guidance for those in the Arts.

Messaging can also encourage conversations, as seen in videos produced with NFL players as part of StoryCorps’s One Small Step, or can give memorable conversation guidance, like the ABCs of Constructive Dialogue from Urban-Rural Action. However, many Americans may not want to engage in time-consuming conversations with uncertain benefits.

Messaging must be coupled with structural reforms to reverse the perverse incentives in electoral systems, news media, social media, and among special-interest groups that often reward demonization of others with money, fame, and power. Electoral structural reformers play an important role, as do key initiatives to try to change advertising flows for news, like the partnership between Ad Fontes Media and The Trade Desk or efforts of the Council for Responsible Social Media.

Meanwhile, conversation workshops are decently effective at reducing political divides among participants, but sufficient scale seems impossible. A daily workshop for 20 new people in each state would take well over 200 years to reach the low-end target of 85 million…a single time.

Attitudinal change on this scale may seem overwhelming but recognize that massive societal perspective changes are possible. Take interracial marriage, support for which was 4% in 1958 but is now at 94%.

We can change attitudes about each other across politics at society-wide scales. We need to start now.

** As of writing, there were 155.2 million 2024 voters, Pew found political affiliation around Republicans (32%), Democrats (33%), and Independents (35%), and YouGov found 74% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans had a “ very unfavorable ” of the other party, along with a low of 29% of Independents very unfavorably viewing Republicans. Multiplication across leads to a target audience of 87.4 million.

James Coan is the co-founder and executive director of More Like US. Coan can be contacted at James@morelikeus.org

Imre Huss is a current intern at More Like US.






Read More

Following Jefferson: Promoting Inter-Generational Understanding Through Constitution-Making

artistic animated portrait of Thomas Jefferson

Following Jefferson: Promoting Inter-Generational Understanding Through Constitution-Making

Part II: Preambles

The band of brothers that met in Philadelphia to draft a fresh Constitution shared one thing in common: They were children of the Enlightenment. It didn’t matter where they came from or what experiences shaped their lives, America’s Founding Fathers subscribed to the ideals of human reason, the rule of law, government by consent, and the all-important “pursuit of happiness.” The Enlightenment was their collective calling card.

That generational camaraderie found purchase in the immortal words of the preamble. “We the People of the United States,” the famous preface begins, “in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” Making promises, or at least challenging ourselves to reach a higher political vista, is pure Enlightenment thinking.

Keep ReadingShow less
From Minnesota to Utah: A Deadly Pattern of Political Violence

American flag with big crack or bullet hole.

Getty Images/Stock Photo

From Minnesota to Utah: A Deadly Pattern of Political Violence

We share in the grief over the weekend’s political violence that claimed the life of Rep. Hortman and her husband Mark, and our thoughts remain with Sen. Hoffman and his wife Yvette as they fight for their lives. This tragedy strikes at the heart of our democracy, threatening not just individual lives but the fundamental belief that people from different backgrounds can come together to solve problems peacefully.

The Minnesota shootings were not the only acts of political violence on June 14th. In Salt Lake City, gunfire shattered a peaceful "No Kings" protest, killing one demonstrator. In Austin, authorities evacuated the state Capitol under credible threats to lawmakers during another rally. In Culpeper, Virginia, a driver was arrested after driving into a crowd of protesters with his vehicle.

Keep ReadingShow less
Stories Matter: How Political Messaging Transforms Protests from Rights to Riots
Demonstrators protest in front of LAPD officers after a series of immigration raids on June 08, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Stories Matter: How Political Messaging Transforms Protests from Rights to Riots

The images emerging from Los Angeles this week tell two very different stories. In one version, federal troops are maintaining law and order in response to dangerous disruptions in immigration enforcement. In another, peaceful protesters defending immigrant communities face an unprecedented deployment of military force against American citizens. Same events, same streets, entirely different narratives. And, as it often does, the one that dominates will determine everything from future policy to how history remembers this moment.

This isn’t a new phenomenon. Throughout American history, the story we tell about protests has mattered more than the protests themselves. And time and again, it’s political messaging, rather than objective truth, that determines which narrative takes hold.

Keep ReadingShow less
Flags of the United States hanging in front of the facade of a building
Colors Hunter - Chasseur de Couleurs/Getty Images

What ‘America First’ Really Looks Like

"Your flag flyin' over the courthouse

Means certain things are set in stone

Keep ReadingShow less