American politics is broken.

From city councils and school boards to state legislatures and the U.S. Congress, elected officials no longer trust one another, candidates are incentivized to divide the citizenry,  and our political institutions are mired in gridlock, dysfunction, and rancor.

Braver Politics is a national initiative to depolarize our politics and remake our political culture from the ground up in a spirit of trust, citizenship, and good-will. By fostering opportunities for elected officials, candidates, and their staffs to participate in Braver Angels programs with each other and with constituents, develop skills for communicating across difference, and build constructive relationships across partisan divides.

Braver Politics workshops and experience include the following events: 

Managing Difficult Conversations with Constituents 

This workshop presents listening and speaking skills for elected officials at all levels, within the framework of how to deal with disagreeing constituents. It is nonpartisan, making it especially useful for nonpartisan local officials.  Participants: No limit on size | Duration: 2 hours 

Managing Difficult Conversations with Colleagues 

This workshop presents listening and speaking skills for elected officials at all levels within the framework of how to deal with disagreeing colleagues. It focuses on building relationships across the aisle and understanding colleagues’  underlying “why” to enable honest and respectful policy arguments.  

Participants: No limit on size | Duration: 2 hours 

Managing Difficult Phone Conversations 

This workshop is designed primarily for campaign and elected officials’ staff to help them learn to de-escalate or manage challenging phone conversations with voters.  

Participants: No limit on size | Duration: 1 hour 

Conversations with Voters: A Skills Workshop for Election Officials 

This two-hour workshop teaches listening and speaking skills for election officials and volunteers who may have specific boundaries around what they can and cannot do for a frustrated voter. This workshop uses an EAS (Answer,  Explain, Solution) framework to help elected officials hear, understand, and adequately respond to voter requests and needs without sacrificing their sanity or the rules. 

Participants: No limit on size | Duration: 2 hours 

Red/Blue Workshop for Elected Officials 

This workshop includes discussion of life experiences that have influenced personal values and beliefs about public policy and community well-being, offers insight into and understanding of the thought processes of those across the aisle (fishbowl exercise), and forges stronger inter-party relationships.  

Participants: Republican/Democratic balance; 5-6 from each side | Duration: 3 or 6 hours 

Constituent Conversations: A Workshop with Elected Officials 

This is a moderated discussion between the elected official and a small group of politically diverse constituents who share their views on two issues that are chosen in advance. The focus is on how participants’ life experiences play into their concern about the issue, and the elected official also shares perspectives.  

Participants: Any elected official and their constituents | Duration: 2 1/2 hours 

Braver Politics Town Halls 

The Braver Politics Town Hall focuses on an issue chosen in advance. Hour 1: citizens in small, mixed groups discussing the issue and finding common ground. Hour 2: moderated conversation among the citizens and one or two elected officials. Participants: Any constituent or member of the public | Duration: 2 hours 

Candidate Debates 

Braver Politics Candidate Debates emphasize issue clash between candidates while minimizing personality clash by requiring participants to adhere to ground rules requiring a focus on action rather than intent and source citations, and avoidance of name-calling, jargon, and interruptions. Further, it sources issues from local voters via an issue survey,  then brings a balanced group of community members across political divides together for a conversation about what those issues mean locally. Finally, questions drafted from the Community Questions conversation must be approved unanimously by all members of the Community Questions group for use in the debate. 

Participants: 2 candidates opposing each other for the same position | Duration: 1 hour 

One-to-One Conversations between Elected Officials 

This is a structured conversation between two elected officials where they discuss life experiences that influenced policy views, how polarization has impacted government, and what can be done to address it. A moderator is present for state and national-level officials, ensuring that guardrails stay in place. 

Participants: 2 elected officials at any level of government, a moderator | Duration: 1 hour

Neighbor Conversations with a Candidate brings together a public official or a candidate and local constituents. It provides candidates an opportunity to better understand and respond to the community’s values and concerns and to address local political polarization and provides voters an opportunity to raise their values and concerns with a public official or candidate, hear from the candidate or public official in a comfortable setting, and potentially hear from and speak with voters across the partisan divide in a respectful way following Braver Angels ground rules.

Participants: 1 candidate or public official at any level of government, a moderator, and members of the public | Duration 2 hours