Skip to content
Project 2025
Search

Latest Stories

Follow Us:
Top Stories
Is The War on Iran Unlawful And Unfair To U.S. Troops?

Is The War on Iran Unlawful And Unfair To U.S. Troops?

Protestors holding signs, many that say "Stop Bombing Iran."

Trump’s ‘Just for Fun’ War Talk Shows a Dangerous Trivialization

Disinformation Wins: Justifying ICE Murders through Transphobia

Disinformation Wins: Justifying ICE Murders through Transphobia

Republican scheming backfires in Texas election

Republican scheming backfires in Texas election

Three candidates vie to become the first Latino Representative for Illinois Congressional District

Three candidates vie to become the first Latino Representative for Illinois Congressional District

Luke Combs: The healing power of “The Great Divide”

Luke Combs: The healing power of “The Great Divide”
Getty Images
David L. Nevins
By David L. NevinsNov 17, 2023
David L. Nevins
David L. Nevins serves as publisher of The Fulcrum. Additionally, Nevins serves as co-founder and Board Chairman of the Bridge Alliance. Nevins brings business acumen, vision and a tireless this-must-and-can-be-done zeal to the burgeoning movement to bridge divides to transform the political process. As a business leader, Nevins excels at building bridges between people and organizations from the right, left and center for civilized conversation and then action. He co-founded the Bridge Alliance because, as he says, “No matter how well managed and how well funded anyone organization is, significant political reform will not happen without an alliance to further collaborative interactions. Together we can and will raise the collective impact of all.” He is a member of the Aspen Institute Society of Fellows, with a focus on the Aspen Rodel Fellowship in Public Leadership, he established and continues to work with The Nevins Democracy Leaders program at Penn State University. Nevins graduated with honors in economics from Penn State in 1969 and received an M.B.A. in finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1971.
See More Writings by author

David Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.

I was watching the 2023 Country Music Awards last week and was struck by a song near the end of the awards ceremony, “Love Can Build a Bridge”.

This song written by Naomi Judd, Paul Overstreet, and John Barlow Jarvis, and recorded by American country music duo The Judds was released in 1990.

Yet, the lyrics are as powerful today as they were when they were written over thirty years ago. As I listened to the lyrics, I thought that it must be a song about bridging the divide that is separating our nation.

Love can build a bridge
Between your heart and mine
Love can build a bridge
Don't you think it's time?
Don't you think it's time?

I would whisper love so loudly
Every heart could understand
That love and only love
Can join the tribes of man
I would give my heart's desire
So that you might see
The first step is to realize
That it all begins with you and me

But I was wrong. I was quite surprised to discover that the song by Naomi Judd was dedicated to the Judd family and fans as a goodbye, as at the time, Naomi was chronically ill with Hepatitis C and was forced to retire. While the song was not at all political, its message about the importance of always standing together is a lesson that our nation surely must learn.

The audience was obviously moved as Jelly Roll and K. Michelle sang with power and obvious emotion and I couldn’t help but think that country music could serve as a powerful force to bridge the divides that are separating us as a nation.

So, I did a bit of research and discovered that in early 2021 famous country singer Luke Combs wrote and performed the song, “The Great Divide,” that connected politics and country music. At the time, Combs told The Rolling Stone that the song was an interpretation of the conflict and tension we had been witnessing at the time he wrote it.

The lyrics speak powerfully to the conflict in America:

We're striking matches on the TV
Setting fires on our phones
Bearing crosses we believe in dying on
Tempers flare, the flame flies higher
As we soar closer towards the sun
But I like to think too much damage ain't been done

We're all so far, so far apart now
It's as deep as it is wide

We're about to fall apart now
If we can't reach the other side

Other country superstars have spoken out about finding common ground. Garth Brooks was widely criticized by many of his fans for performing at President Biden's inaugural but fended of the criticism with this message of unity:

"I'll tell you with this whole presidential thing: We got one going out. Pray for him and his family. And for the president going in, pray for him and his family to guide this nation," Brooks said at the time. "Let's stay together. Love, unity -- that's what it's all about." He continued, "We can't thank the Obamas enough for serving this country," he said. "And may God hold Trump's hand in the decisions that he makes in this country's name as well."

Listen to both “Love Can Build a Bridge” and “The Great Divide” and see if you feel the amazing healing and connecting powers music can have on us. And just imagine how if this energy for good were amplified and scaled.

Jelly Roll and K. Michelle Perform "Love Can Build A Bridge" at the The CMA Awards

Luke Combs’ “The Great Divide”


Latest news

Close up of stock market chart on a glowing particle world map.
Economy

How the Iran Conflict Triggered a Private Credit Liquidity Crisis

I’m a Former Immigration Lawyer Turned Public School Teacher. Here’s How I’m Engaging Students in Civics.
Education

I’m a Former Immigration Lawyer Turned Public School Teacher. Here’s How I’m Engaging Students in Civics.

Digital generated image of green semi transparent AI word on white circuit board visualizing smart technology.
Media & Technology

A Proven Playbook for AI Leadership: Lessons from America’s Chip Comeback

Protestors holding signs, including one that says "let the people vote."
Governance & Legislation

SAVE America Act Debate Begins; Mullin for DHS Hearing

Read More

Paul Ehrlich was wrong about everything

Crowd of people walking on a street.

Andy Andrews//Getty Images

Paul Ehrlich was wrong about everything

Biologist and author Paul Ehrlich, the most influential Chicken Little of the last century, died at the age of 93 this week. His 1968 book, “The Population Bomb,” launched decades of institutional panic in government, entertainment and journalism.

Ehrlich’s core neo-Malthusian argument was that overpopulation would exhaust the supply of food and natural resources, leading to a cascade of catastrophes around the world. “The Population Bomb” opens with a bold prediction, “The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Bravado Isn’t a Strategy: Why the Iran War Has No Endgame

People clear rubble in a house in the Beryanak District after it was damaged by missile attacks two days before, on March 15, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. The United States and Israel continued their joint attack on Iran that began on February 28. Iran retaliated by firing waves of missiles and drones at Israel, and targeting U.S. allies in the region.

Getty Images, Majid Saeedi

Bravado Isn’t a Strategy: Why the Iran War Has No Endgame

Most of what we have heard from the administration as it pertains to the Iran War is swagger and bro-talk. A few days into the war, the White House released a social media video that combined footage of the bombardment with clips from video games. Not long after, it released a second video, titled “Justice the American Way,” that mixed images of the U.S. military with scenes from movies like Gladiator and Top Gun Maverick.

Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, War Secretary Pete Hegseth boasted of “death and destruction from the sky all day long.” “They are toast, and they know it,” he said. “This was never meant to be a fair fight... we are punching them while they’re down.”

Keep ReadingShow less
A student in uniform walking through a campus.

A Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) cadet walks through campus November 7, 2003 in Princeton, New Jersey.

Getty Images, Spencer Platt

Hegseth is Dumbing Down the Military (on Purpose)

One day before the United States began an ill-defined and illegal war of indefinite length with Iran, Pete Hegseth angrily attacked a different enemy: the Ivy League. The Secretary of War denounced Ivy League universities as "woke breeding grounds of toxic indoctrination” and then eliminated long-standing college fellowship programs with more than a dozen elite colleges, which had historically served as a pipeline for service members to the upper ranks of military leadership. Of the schools now on Hegseth’s "no-fly list," four sit in the top ten of the World’s Top Universities for 2026. So, why does the Secretary of War not want his armed forces to have the best education available? Because he wants a military without a brain.

For a guy obsessed with being the strongest and most lethal force in the world, cutting access to world-class schools is a bizarre gambit. It does reveal Hegseth doesn’t consider intelligence a factor–let alone an asset–in strength or lethality. That tracks. Hegseth alleges the Ivies infect officers with “globalist and radical ideologies that do not improve our fighting ranks…” God forbid the tip of the sword of our foreign policy has knowledge of international cooperation and global interconnectedness. The Ivy League has its own issues, but the Pentagon’s claim that they "fail to deliver rigorous education grounded in realism” is almost laughable. I’m a veteran Lieutenant Commander with two Ivy League degrees, both paid for with military tuition assistance, and I promise: it was rigorous. Meanwhile, are Hegseth’s performative politics grounded in reality? Attacking Harvard on social media the eve of initiating a new war with a foreign adversary is disgraceful, and even delusional.

Keep ReadingShow less
Are We Prepared for a World Where AI Isn’t at Work?
Person working at a desk with a laptop and books.
Photo by Microsoft Copilot on Unsplash

Are We Prepared for a World Where AI Isn’t at Work?

Draft an important email without using AI. Write it from scratch — no suggestions, no autocomplete, and no prompt to ChatGPT to compose or revise the email.

Now ask yourself: Did it feel slower? Harder? Slightly uncomfortable?

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2026