Skip to content
Project 2025
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories
The Panama Canal has value to American business—but it has more value to China

The Panama Canal has value to American business—but it has more value to China

A fictional, fanciful sign depicts the results of voter suppression through the unfair, partisan manipulation of district lines (gerrymandering).

The worst congressional gerrymanders of the 2020s

Congress Bill Spotlight: renaming Gulf of Mexico as “Gulf of America”

Congress Bill Spotlight: renaming Gulf of Mexico as “Gulf of America”

Project 2025: Part II

Project 2025: Part II

Redistricting

Redistricting

Fulcrum Democracy Forum: Maxine Rich

Fulcrum Democracy Forum: Maxine Rich

Maxine Rich, Program Manager with Common Ground USA at Search for Common Ground

Hugo Balta
By Hugo BaltaFeb 16, 2025
Hugo Balta
See More Writings by author

Maxine Rich is the Program Manager with Common Ground USA at Search for Common Ground.

Rich applies proven methods from international peacebuilding to shore up social cohesion in the United States. She oversees efforts to reduce online polarization and build grassroots resilience to extremism.

I spoke with Maxine on a recent episode of Fulcrum Democracy Forum (FDF). The program engages citizens in evolving government to better meet all people's needs. Consistent with the Fulcrum's mission, FDF strives to share many perspectives to widen our readers' viewpoints.


- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Maxine and I know each other through Common Ground: Journalism, an initiative where students explore strategies and challenges to reporting on-campus conflicts. I am an instructor.

Previously, Maxine led the design of global programs on religious freedom and women's empowerment, researched violent extremism in Morocco, and strengthened peacebuilding partnerships with the US Government, UN, and peer organizations.

She has also served as the Maryland Director of Urban Rural Action and as a dialogue facilitator with Soliya and First Year Connect, a virtual exchange program supporting college students to understand and communicate across differences.

Here are other Change Leaders who I had the opportunity to interview as part of the Fulcrum Democracy Forum series:

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

    I am the executive editor of the Fulcrum and a board member of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund, the parent organization of The Fulcrum. I am also the publisher of the Latino News Network and an accredited solutions journalism trainer with the Solutions Journalism Network.

    Latest news

    15 Years After Citizens United, Seattle Can Show the Way Forward
    Money & Politics

    15 Years After Citizens United, Seattle Can Show the Way Forward

    Open Primaries President: Voters Don't Trust Reformers Right Now; We Need to Earn That Trust
    Bridging & Common Ground

    Open Primaries President: Voters Don't Trust Reformers Right Now; We Need to Earn That Trust

    Students raising their hands in a classroom
    Governance & Legislation

    Project 2025: Department of Education

    Rule of Law: Why it matters
    Rule of Law

    Rule of Law: Why it matters

    Read More

    A Right to Exist in Mutual Dignity

    Paper cut-outs of people and the earth.

    Getty Images, Liliia Bila

    A Right to Exist in Mutual Dignity

    The question of Israel's right to exist isn't an abstract debate—it's written in the ashes of six million souls, in the tears of generations, and in the fierce determination of a people who refuse to let their story end in darkness. Any questioning of Israel's right to exist is to whisper that the Jewish people's centuries-long journey of survival, resilience, and hope, somehow matters less than others. As a Black American, I know too well how systems of oppression work to deny people their fundamental humanity.

    When Hamas' charter calls for Israel's destruction, it echoes the same dehumanizing logic that has justified countless atrocities past and present. However, there is an inconvenient truth one must remain answerable to. Israel's right to exist doesn't permit any of us to look away from Palestinian suffering. Personal experiences with injustice inform the understanding that pain doesn't cancel out pain. Trauma doesn't negate trauma. The Jewish people have a right to security and self-determination in their uniquely established territorial homeland alongside—not in opposition to—the Palestinian people's right to dignity and self determination in their ancestral homeland.

    Keep ReadingShow less
    Interpersonal communication is a – not the only – way to reduce political divides
    Polarization and the politics of love
    Polarization and the politics of love

    Interpersonal communication is a – not the only – way to reduce political divides

    Think of the words “a” and “the.” Two of the smallest and most basic words in English, it is easy to not think very closely about which to use.

    Yet when it comes to thinking about how to reduce perceived political divides, the difference becomes clear.

    Keep ReadingShow less
    The Republican Party Can Build A Winning Coalition With Independents

    People voting at a polling booth.

    Getty Images//Rawpixel

    The Republican Party Can Build A Winning Coalition With Independents

    The results of the 2024 election should put to bed any doubts as to the power of independent voters to decide key elections. Independents accounted for 34% of voters in 2024, handing President Trump the margin of victory in every swing state race and making him only the second Republican to win the popular vote since 1988. The question now is whether Republicans will build bridges with independent voters and cement a generational winning coalition or squander the opportunity like the Democrats did with the independent-centric Obama coalition.

    Almost as many independents came out to vote this past November as Republicans, more than the 31% of voters who said they were Democrats, and just slightly below the 35% of voters who said they were Republicans. In 2020, independents cast just 26% of the ballots nationwide. The President’s share of the independent vote went up 5% compared to the 2020 election when he lost the independent vote to former President Biden by a wide margin. It’s no coincidence that many of the key demographics that President Trump made gains with this election season—Latinos, Asians and African Americans—are also seeing historic levels of independent voter registration.

    Keep ReadingShow less
    A Super Bowl of Unity

    A crowd in a football stadium.

    Getty Images, Adamkaz

    A Super Bowl of Unity

    Philadelphia is known as the City of Brotherly Love, and perhaps it is fitting that the Philadelphia Eagles won Sunday night's Super Bowl 59, given the number of messages of unity, resilience, and coming together that aired throughout the evening.

    The unity messaging started early as the pre-game kicked off with movie star Brad Pitt narrating a moving ad that champions residence and togetherness in honor of those who suffered from the Los Angeles fires and Hurricane Helen:

    Keep ReadingShow less
    © Copyright 2025