At Braver Angels we are telling a different story about what is happening in America.
Ours is not a narrative of a villainous left or an irredeemable right bent on destroying all that is good in this republic. Ours is not a view that gives all power on earth to politicians and denies any agency to the American people to shape our common destiny.
At Braver Angels I think it is fair to say that we believe in the American capacity for good. Moreover, we believe in the power of that goodness. We believe this even as our shared capacity for prejudice and corruption stands ugly and evident in the bitter trenches of our divides.
But within the better angels of our nature lies the formidable powers of wisdom, understanding, courage and compassion. These are the tools by which we bring forth the best in each other to bring forth the best in America.
This past Tuesday former president of the United States Donald J. Trump was arraigned and brought before the magistrate in a federal courtroom in Miami. There he learned, as America would learn, that the former leader of the free world and the leading candidate for the Republican Party presidential nomination in 2024 has been indicted on 37 felony counts related to his alleged willful mishandling of classified government documents following his time as president.
Onlookers from across the spectrum describe the former president’s legal jeopardy as very real. What is also very real is the fact that, though done through the independent offices of the Special Counsel, the prosecution of Donald J. Trump has been sanctioned by the Justice Department serving within the administration of President Joseph R. Biden. The federal government under Biden is wielding the powers of the law against the sitting president’s primary political rival in a high stakes legal struggle that parallels the contest over who will lead America.
“This is beyond ordinary politics. This is a moment unlike any we have ever been in as a nation before.“
This is beyond ordinary politics. This is a moment unlike any we have ever been in as a nation before. One thing of course is certain: our divisions continue to deepen.
To tens of millions of Americans President Trump is a champion. He stands as the bulwark against the rising tyranny of the left. This unequal application of justice, never considered for Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden for similar transgressions, is being used as a pretext to destroy the one man who can save America.
Tens of millions of other Americans, meanwhile, see this offense as but one more landmark in a long trail of corruption and abuses by former president Trump for which only the powers of justice can hold him accountable. President Biden stands between America and a perverse and fascistic movement that will unravel the fabric of democracy should they ever again gain hold of power.
Yet each side is united in seeing the other as holding itself and its leaders above the law.
At Braver Angels we hold all of these views and a universe of nuance in between. All that makes us different is that we understand that the reasons we hold for seeing politics as we do are deeply held, and interwoven with experiences living life in America that are inscrutable absent the keen eye of empathy.
Understanding the humanity in our differences, we do not see them as negating the deep good of which we are capable should we only choose to see the good in each other.
And so, we choose to see the good.
Will you be at the Braver Angels Convention? Come next month following the Independence Day holiday we will convene as Americans left, right and center, young and old, religious and secular from BLM to MAGA, to challenge each other to understand each other at the site of one of the great battlegrounds of the Civil War.
We will use the tools we have honed through the work of our brave community of volunteers to till the soil for a bright and resilient American future.
We will speak the truth to one another in fierceness and friendship. And we will celebrate the fact that in the heart of our turmoil the friendship of the American people thrives in Gettysburg.
We don’t know what the future holds. But at Braver Angels we do know that it depends upon our willingness to hold true to each other in the face of the forces that divide us.
It will take patriotism. It will take empathy. It will take bravery.
But these are the things in which we believe at Braver Angels.
