Bridging “The Clash of Two Rights” – How Liberals and Conservatives can Work Together Again

Local Focus: Oregon

Imagine a life of all work and no play, a company focused solely on short-term gains at the expense of long-term health, or a project filled with leaders and no followers. Collapse would occur, because humans need both seriousness and fun, a present-day focus as well as an eye towards the future, and visionary leaders along with a team to implement the vision.

Light and darkness, action and reflection, confidence and humility…life is full of binary forces, otherwise known as polarities. Polarities are often misunderstood as clashing and incompatible values, but they are actually interdependent. We need both/and for good living, not either/or.

Similarly, could it be that a balance between the Left and the Right achieves healthy outcomes in politics and society? In this gathering, we will get acquainted with a tool called Polarity Thinking© to see how we can balance liberal and conservative values. We’ll take an issue (i.e. homelessness, immigration, or health care, etc) and brainstorm the upsides and downsides of both liberal and conservative perspectives on that issue. We will identify signs of imbalance and also possible course corrections to bring us closer to the interdependent space that honors both sides.

Dimitra Giannakoulias is Oregon’s new Red State Coordinator for Braver Angels. The child of immigrants, she is passionate about bringing inter-cultural perspectives to help people get along better in society and the workplace. Working as a consultant and facilitator, she uses her background in organization development to make the world of work a better place. In her spare time, Dimitra goes hiking and camping any chance she gets.