Jamie McReynolds had quite the challenge as a new debate chair. Moderating a Braver Angels college debate at Virginia Tech, he found himself wishing he’d intervened early. The source of his concern: a Blue participant was flouting the spirit of the debate by repeatedly shouting “point of information” and trumpeting liberal data points without being recognized by the chair, in front of the largely conservative audience.
Happily, the late intervention got the debate back on track. No shouting match erupted; no fists flew. But for Jamie, himself Blue, it was a sharp lesson in just how easy it is to weaponize language and data – and in just how polarized America is.
Jamie is Braver Angels’ coordinator for the Commonwealth of Virginia – the state’s only coordinator for the last two years since the Red state coordinator who’d recruited him stepped down. The Red vacancy is not for want of trying; Jamie is constantly on the look-out for candidates. Nor is it the only challenge he and his colleagues face. He has tried starting an alliance and gathered about 10 people who expressed some interest. “But they quickly fell away,” he says. “It takes a certain amount of enthusiasm to carry Braver Angels’ mission forward.”
Part of the challenge is endemic to the organization as a whole: the fact that it is heavily metropolitan. “I pulled a list of all members and subscribers in Virginia; out of, say, 700 members, less than 100 are outside the Washington, DC, area,” says, Jamie, who is based in Blacksburg, a college town more than 250 miles southwest of DC-area cities such as Arlington, Fairfax, and Alexandria.
Ordained as a Unitarian Universalist minister, Jamie McReynolds first heard about Braver Angels in 2018 when he read about the organization in a blog penned by another UU minister. “I’d read ‘The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion’ [by Jonathan Haidt, a member of BA’s board of directors], which said you need both conservative and liberal minds working together,” he says. Soon he had started organizing Braver Angels workshops in and around Blacksburg: a Red/Blue workshop, Skills for Bridging the Divide, a Depolarizing Within event, and gotten good attendance and participation. “People walked away with an understanding of others’ perspectives,” he recalls.
For Jamie, the job of getting workshops off the ground – including matching moderators up with organizers – has morphed into something more diffuse. “As a state coordinator, my role is connecting people,” he says. “I’m a source of information.” He is a trained participant and breakout room manager and troubleshooter for Braver Angels’ online workshops and has been helping where needed. He also assists with the organization’s community-based debates and the big Coliseum debates.
Now though, Jamie is at a bit of a crossroads. While wholly committed to Braver Angels ideals and methods and involved with the #ListenFirst Coalition, he’s going into listening mode himself. “I’d like to know where the organization is going and what the leadership team sees as we come out of the pandemic so I can figure out the best place to put my energy,” he says.
He’ll be listening hard. Indeed, Jamie could be considered a professional listener. Although he no longer serves as a UU minister, he had a second career as a hospital and hospice chaplain.
He has a particular perspective on the value of online events. “Being on Zoom is not the greatest,” he declares. “It’s easier to coordinate but tougher to produce, requiring two event managers and two moderators.” He admires the proficiency with which Braver Angels has implemented its activities online and is keen to see and perhaps contribute to how the organization adapts to hybrid (that is, in-person plus online) events. He is under no illusions about the added complexity involved.
More broadly, Jamie would like to see Braver Angels amplify and extend the sense of community he experiences in the regular meetings of the organization’s debate team. He believes that Braver Angels could scale faster if it reframed its membership targeting. “It would be interesting to see what the market is for people who have an [ongoing] interest in politics rather than just around elections,” he says. “I think our new Braver Politics initiative is going to be a good extension of our message.” And he argues for an increase in the organization’s membership fee – currently just $12 a year – to at least $20.
Meanwhile, Jamie would love to hear from you if you live anywhere in Virginia and are interested in helping carry the Braver Angels message forward. As Jamie will tell you, it does not have to be a many-hours-a-week commitment or full-on dedication to organizing an entire alliance or event. There are many ways to start small – and make a difference. Reach Jamie at: jmcreynolds@braverangels.org.
