How Braver Angels Began | David Blankenhorn, Bill Doherty, & David Lapp - Braver Angels

How Braver Angels Began | David Blankenhorn, Bill Doherty, & David Lapp

On the weekend of December 9, 2016, a small group of citizens—half Donald Trump voters, half Hillary Clinton voters—gathered in South Lebanon, Ohio, for an experiment. Could we talk with each other rather than at each other? 

Five years later, the co-founders of Braver Angels (David Blankenhorn, Bill Doherty, and David Lapp) reflect on that inaugural event and how it led to the birth of Braver Angels as we now know it.

Learn more and support our mission: braverangels.org/support-us

Twitter: @braverangels, @blankenhorn3, @davidlappoh

More to explore

‘Braver Angels really helped me to see the humanity in people from the other side’: One high schooler’s journey to better political conversations

A native of Boulder, Colorado, Mia didn’t know many Trump supporters—and she was nervous to engage with them. “I was like, ‘Don’t they hate women? Don’t they hate black people?’” she said. “That was my initial belief because that’s what I had heard about people who voted for Trump.” But she quickly realized she was wrong. During the first Braver Lens session, Mia was able to connect with conservatives in the group and recognize their points of commonality. “When we met, they showed their pictures, and explained their life stories, and I was able to see where our values overlap,” she said. 

Read More »

How a Christian conservative found his way to Braver Angels

As a young man, Daniel’s father emerged from a broken, dysfunctional home looking for direction and found it while attending a Billy Graham crusade in Chicago. There, he “walked forward”—committing himself to Jesus Christ and changing the trajectory of his family. Not long after, he married Daniel’s mom, a Christian convert whose grandparents sought refuge in America after escaping pogroms in Europe.

Read More »

Announcing Braver Angels Advisory Council

Twenty-three leaders who disagree on many things said yes to the same thing this month. They agreed to stand together, publicly, behind the idea that Americans can hold fast to their convictions while staying genuinely curious about the convictions of people on the other side. That’s it. That’s the commitment. For more than nine years, Braver Angels has reached people in every state in the union. The ones who’ve engaged have experienced something that surprises them every time: the relief of disagreeing without contempt, and the discovery that the person across the table is not who the feed said they were.

Read More »

1 thought on “How Braver Angels Began | David Blankenhorn, Bill Doherty, & David Lapp”

  1. My mother was a strong Trump supporter and she died July 5, 2016. My entire family became greedy and ejected me and then I decided I was going to vote for my mother even though I’ve been a Democrat most my adult life.

Leave a Comment

Braver Angels Support