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♪
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Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
Hey, everybody, I'm Van Jones,
and we are so excited for you to watch this documentary
called "The Reunited States."
That is my prayer, that we will have the Reunited States.
This is an important documentary.
It profiles everyday people, ordinary people,
who are on this difficult journey
of trying to bridge these political divides,
these racial divides,
because we are at a crossroads in our nation's history.
Now, we can either keep going where we're headed,
keep going down this dangerous road
of division and demonization, or we can turn things around
and start trying to see each other as human beings again.
And now more than ever, we gotta summon
the power to change how we see each other,
how we relate to each other, how we listen to each other.
That power is in our hands.
So we're inviting you
not to only watch the documentary.
We want you to become a bridge builder yourself,
to be a part of this mission, this journey,
of reuniting America,
reuniting this country.
Everybody's got a role to play in that,
and you certainly do.
Please enjoy the show.
(clicking)
♪
Our country is very divided right now.
♪
We are as divided now as we were before the Civil War.
♪
And we're not really getting at the root causes.
(indistinct chatter)
What we have today is a kind of party loyalty
that is starting to transcend our loyalty to our country.
You don't belong here!
What we're seeing today is a dehumanizing
of everyone who opposes us.
If you ask people why they're a Republican
or why they're a Democrat:
"It's because I hate the other party."
It sounds like they're making arrests.
-Why are they making arrests? -I don't know.
The divisions, they're happening in our neighborhoods,
they're happening in our schools,
and they're happening in our families.
It wasn't that they just had political disagreements.
Folks were physically attacking one another.
Stop!
♪
The root causes of division go all the way down
into our foundation as a country.
We're facing problems we've never faced before.
(shouting)
If we're going to live in a democracy,
all of us have to learn to be mediators
and bridge-builders.
I'm Steven Olikara.
My name is Susan Bro.
I'm Greg Orman.
I'm Mark Gerzon, I'm the author
of The Reunited States of America,
and I've been a bridge-builder
between Democrats and Republicans
in the partisan divide for the last 30 years.
What I've learned is that polarization
is not just in Washington, it's in our own hearts.
Before we can fix government, we have to fix ourselves
and the way we see our fellow citizens.
-We're Erin... -...and David Leaverton.
We decided to travel to all 50 states
to get an understanding
of what was causing these divisions.
The real key to solving the partisan divide
is within each of us.
That's part of being a citizen of America.
We are the solution.
Ordinary citizens working across the divide every day
to make this country a better place.
Whether it's a liberal agenda or a conservative agenda,
hate does not belong to either one.
We're always gonna have liberals
and conservatives in America.
We'll never make the other side go away.
It's in our own interest
to learn how to cross the divide.
We are the government.
If we want to see a different government,
the genius of America
is that it's our responsibility to fix it.
♪
We need a narrative about the left and the right
working together.
This is something we have the power to change.
This is something we have control over.
I want to create a third force in our politics
that's able to get us beyond this partisan warfare.
This country needs bridge-builders,
people who have the courage to be pioneers,
who are willing to get out of their comfort zones
to bring both sides together.
That's the path forward.
♪
Mary Catherine, what are you drawing?
-I'm making our bus. -Are you really?
-Yes. -Look at it.
Very beautiful.
And where is it going?
To all the states.
-Are you excited? -Yeah.
Cool, me too.
-Very aerodynamic. -Mm-hm.
I like it.
♪
I always felt like when I left politics
that there were some things that were left unfinished.
I was a proud Republican, and I was working
to defeat any Democrat who was in our way
because I really felt like what their policies were doing
was destroying our country.
♪
Did everything from opposition research
to targeted campaigns
that would turn one group of voters
against another group of voters.
I was involved in things I'm not really proud of.
♪
People are getting inundated with this message of division
and dehumanization and demonization
of the other side, and it is tearing families apart
and it's tearing communities apart.
I've been involved in those kind of campaigns
and I know how to do that.
♪
So, fast forward to 2016, we were watching
a story about this guy who got hit across the head
with a bag of rocks because he was wearing
a Make America Great Again hat.
♪
I sensed a deep sort of sorrow growing in him.
♪
And one night, I just said,
"If you didn't have a mortgage,
what would you want to wake up and do tomorrow?"
And I answered her, "To bring unity to America."
It came out before I even thought about it.
I was like, "How are you gonna bring unity
to people you've never met?"
♪
Okay. Now where's the wrapping paper?
-You got a Sharpie? -Uh-huh.
♪
So at 5:00 a.m., she wakes me up.
And I said, "You know, what if the first step
of learning about division
is to go out and actually ask people?"
I said, "You're crazy,
but I can't think of a better way
to learn about what's broken in our country."
Hey, guys, we've got an exciting announcement to make.
We've gone crazy.
I quit my job, we sold our house,
and we bought an RV.
We're going on a great American road trip for a year
to all 50 states with our family of five.
Our goal for this year is to reach outside our bubble,
to host dinners and to listen and learn from people
who aren't like us...
Hi, big bus.
...and hopefully discover what connects us as Americans.
♪
Come along for the ride.
It'll be fun.
♪
(sharp exhaling)
She was still alive.
She was still alive a year ago right now.
She was hot, she was tired, she was thirsty.
She was still alive.
♪
My daughter was not a leader.
She was not a known activist.
♪
He just drove into a crowd,
and she was the one who happened to die.
♪
Thank you for coming to remember Heather,
but this was not all about Heather.
We have a huge problem in our city and in our country.
We have got to fix this
or we'll be right back here in no time.
The world went crazy when Heather lost her life,
and that's not fair because so many mothers lose
their children every day, and we have to fix that.
I don't want other mothers to be in my spot.
I don't want other mothers to go through this.
♪
So, today, not only do we remember my baby girl,
I want to thank the troopers for their sacrifice
who lost their lives that day.
There's so much healing to do
and we've got to do it together.
Amen.
♪
I struggle with my own emotional issues.
Heather died, but there were 30 people
who were injured that day
who are having a really hard time.
-I need to tell you something. -Yes, dear.
-It's about Heather. -Yes?
I stood there with her as she went...
♪
She went well.
♪
I believe it.
Thank you.
I was the street medic who was the first responder
for Heather and initiated CPR...
I do, I just wanted you to know
I did everything that I could do.
Thank you, I understand,
but this is the way it was meant to be, sadly.
Heather would never want this attention on her.
The attention belongs squarely on the issues
that she was standing up for that day.
Thirty-two-year-old Heather Heyer
was protesting white supremacy.
The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee
has become the focal point
since the city council voted in February to remove it.
I did not pay attention to politics before Heather died.
♪
I thought the country was healed over racial issues.
♪
I just didn't understand how deeply it went.
♪
You know, it's difficult to explain to a child
why the Lee statue still stands.
Even at eight years old,
they recognize the Lee statue
as a civil rights issue.
I did not seek this opportunity.
I'm just trying to make something positive
out of this horrible situation.
My daughter, who was not a known activist,
would tell you as I am telling you, get over her.
Let's get on to the issues that she died for.
She died for lives mattering.
(applause)
All of us have to find what our way
of caring about each other is.
Amen.
I'm trying to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing.
I just wanted to shake your hand.
Thank you for keeping it real.
That's the best way to be.
Thanks, I'll try.
We appreciate it.
That's something you didn't have to do,
and we thank God for it.
Thank you, but, yeah, we do have to do it.
We have a lot to do.
♪
Heather got all this attention because she was a white woman
who was killed.
I just don't think if it had been a person of color
it would have gotten near as much attention.
♪
I think Heather and the survivors deserve
their day of justice.
♪
So, we'll see how it comes out in court.
(traffic sounds)
Bring it over--over here.
Oh.
Let's do "Anger Face," get it down,
and then maybe we can go back to that.
All right, ready.
♪
The first passion I ever had in life was playing music.
♪
Here, I think, actually, the place to cut it out
is let it go all the way through,
and then I'll just cut out with--with the drum track,
and then you just sit there and do your, like, chug thing.
One more time at the end?
Yeah.
It has informed my politics
because I believe our political system is best
when people from different backgrounds
are sharing their ideas to advance public interest.
Oh, that's it, yeah.
♪
One, two, three, four.
♪
Yeah!
That's sick!
Oh my God.
♪
Two major forces
shape the future of our politics.
One is the worsening polarization and gridlock.
The second is the rising millennial generation,
which we believe will transform American politics.
♪
The average American is about 20 years younger
than the average member of Congress.
And I had this realization:
who's actually in Congress
looking out for the next generation?
Issues we'll inherit in the future,
whether it's climate change or the national debt,
are not so much dividing between the left versus right
but, really, the future versus the past.
♪
We decided to create the first-ever caucus
for young members of Congress.
♪
Jefferson talked a lot about the need
for future generations to replenish American democracy.
♪
Actually, the majority of the Founding Fathers
were under the age of 40.
If a generation of 20-somethings and 30-somethings
can invent American democracy,
then why can't a new generation
reinvent American self-government?
♪
When we formed Millennial Action Project,
it was the first time that millennial Democrats
and Republicans joined forces
to work on the issues facing our country's future.
♪
In addition to Texas, our Oregon caucus
is trying to get a student loan bill of rights
so that young people understand all of their rights
and the ins and outs of their loans.
♪
Two-thirds of the American public
now sees people of the other political party as evil.
♪
We need to decide if we're going to work together
or attack each other.
♪
I'm dedicated to building a generation of leaders
across these divisions.
♪
We have an annual conference
where we bring our rising stars together
from red, blue, and purple states.
And so I said to myself, I better come down
to a summit to learn more.
That's awesome.
We're basically looking for two things:
members who are young by age or young by heart...
Some people would see age as, you know, a drawback,
but in my opinion, it puts me even closer to the issues
that are important to my family.
Right.
of bridge-building.
It is not a partisan issue.
Over time, Mississippi will see
a solution to the brain drain.
We support elected officials who are bridge-builders,
not dividers.
Over the next 20 to 30 years,
our generation will take the reins of government,
and we have a choice to make.
Are we going to lead our country
in a different direction,
or will we be a continuation of the status quo?
More division, more dysfunction, more inaction.
♪
Millennials recognize they've been given a broken system.
♪
They're not interested in the old right/left argument.
They're interested in the results.
Polling data shows that a third of Americans
call themselves "independents."
They don't want to call themselves
Democrats or Republicans.
They're saying, "I'm not following
what some party leader in Washington
tells me I'm supposed to think.
Why should I give up my independence?"
And I believe that is the key to our future.
♪
One person said to me, "You know, Greg,
I love what you're saying.
If I could pick the governor myself,
there's no question it would be you.
But I'm a little concerned if I vote for you,
I might help elect the Democrat."
Literally, 20 minutes later,
the person sitting right next to them said,
"Greg, if I could pick the governor, it'd be you,
but I'm a little concerned if I vote for you,
I might help the Republican."
And of course I said,
"Well, I've got a solution to that.
Why don't you both just commit
to voting for me right now?
And you cancel each other out, you won't have that concern."
And so, we just need to get people to realize
that they don't need to vote out of fear.
♪
Probably the most enduring memory I have
from my childhood was being financially insecure.
♪
That feeling of being insecure never really left me.
♪
I think it's our moral obligation
to leave a better country for future generations.
And so, I decided we had to do something different.
♪
-You're Greg Orman. -I am.
My name is Greg Orman, by the way.
I'm running for governor.
I believe that the two-party system
is irreparably broken.
We need to disrupt it.
It's focused on one thing and one thing only
and that's getting their people elected.
You know, ultimately, it leads to
a bunch of bad representation.
I tell people, "It's not public service
if it's the best job you're ever gonna have."
I want to create a third force in our politics
that's able to get us beyond this partisan warfare,
this hatred, because it's not meeting the needs
of the American people.
♪
This political system has to change.
♪
We built a strategy back in 2012 and 2013
that we refer to as the Senate Fulcrum Strategy.
If there were two independents in the U.S. Senate,
neither party would have a majority.
We underestimate what that's worth,
and to be the vote, to decide control of the Senate,
we would be able to use that leverage
to get Washington back into the business
of solving problems.
'Cause I thought, you know, "If you believe
There he is!
Greg Orman.
And so, in 2014, we launched an independent campaign
for the U.S. Senate.
We did a bus tour like we're on right now,
talked to people about issues they cared about.
People started gravitating to our campaigns,
and that was when the race really changed.
The Democratic candidate dropped out
of the race yesterday.
Now Greg Orman, the independent candidate,
has a one-on-one shot at Pat Roberts.
This one could determine who controls
the United States Senate.
It really woke up the incumbent.
There were at least two dozen national Republican figures
who came and campaigned against me in Kansas.
This race has a razor-thin margin.
He has refused to say which party he'll caucus with
because he says he'll break the gridlock
as an independent.
to losing by about ten points in November.
♪
Most of our Founding Fathers were deeply skeptical
of what would happen if the nation was divided
into two factions.
They were concerned about the moment
that we're in right now.
♪
There's a reason there are political parties.
They're not in the Constitution.
♪
That's why I'm an independent
and I'm running for governor of Kansas.
♪
This is good.
♪ Just take my way ♪
(indistinct chatter)
Sorry, this is more important.
No!
Please!
Does anybody know any more words than that three?
♪ It winds from Chicago ♪♪
We're gonna go out and just talk to people here,
hear their stories.
This is a beautiful city,
and we're excited to get to meet the people
in state number one.
-You have a baby on the way. -I do.
Tell us about how you're feeling about that.
I'm really, really excited, but I'm also incredibly scared
'cause right after I got out of the military,
right before I started this job,
I was on the verge of being homeless.
I met people who I never talked to before.
We have to bring our white brothers and sisters
to the understanding of what white privilege means.
I still hate the word "white privilege."
Why don't you like the word?
I don't as much feel it as a privilege
as it is a right that we should all have.
-But we don't. -Yeah.
Right, but not everybody has it,
so then what do you call it?
I don't know, I just don't like the word.
Hey, guys, I'm at the Boston Methodist Church
in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and we just finished
the most beautiful ceremony for the MLK celebration.
We're just finalizing RSVPs.
A couple of people are kind of on the fence
and so, we're just trying to lock that in.
You're doing a good job, by the way.
Thank you.
around the country and we can host dinners
of Republicans and Democrats,
and if we can just get people to sit down
at a table together, they'll realize
that they're a lot more alike than they thought.
All right, welcome.
We already kind of welcomed you already,
but I think the first thing is to admit
this is weird, right?
One question I would love to just sort of kick off
is, like, what is your, um,
your American story?
Our theory that divisions in America
are rooted in politics
got completely blown up on Day One.
Being called "illegal" and being called a "wetback"
and, you know, every time I hear them,
it's--it's dehumanizing.
We learned very quickly that our political divisions
are more symptomatic of something
that goes a lot deeper.
There's a huge division in our country right now
and, yeah, we wanted to maybe see if we could
start a little bit of a conversation
to try and break down some walls of division.
Generally speaking, um,
I'd have to honestly say that I don't have
a really great feeling towards white people.
Um, a lot of it is because of some of my experiences
and some of what I've seen my parents experience.
I went into labor with my first child
when I was seven months along,
and my water broke while I was walking around the mall
with my dad.
He was buying baby clothes.
And I went to the hospital.
The nurse came in, and I said,
"I think I'm having contractions,"
and she examined me very quickly and she said,
"Oh, you're not ready to have this baby yet.
You call me back in here when you're ready
to have this baby."
And they let me lay there for hours.
By the time the doctor came, I was crowning.
-Wow. -And my first baby died,
and I know that they did not give me the care
and the attention that I deserved.
I lost my baby because they did not provide
proper care for me.
I'm so sorry.
And it's so hard
to know that I'm a good person, I'm a good mother,
and to have someone look at me
or to look at Black children as if they're criminals,
as if we don't deserve to be respected,
we don't deserve to be treated fairly,
it does something to you mentally and spiritually
and emotionally.
I've never forgotten losing my first child
because I was a Black unwed mother,
and they didn't think that my child's life
was as important as the child being delivered
in the room next to me.
Mechelle, I'm so sorry.
Stand up.
(crying)
Nothing can make it right.
-It still hurts. -I know.
I know it does, I'm so sorry.
♪
Beneath what we call "political polarization"
are a lot of other fundamental tensions
in our culture:
race, religious differences,
economic differences, gender issues.
Division is a human problem, not just an American problem.
♪
If we're going to be a democracy,
we have to recognize our rights and the rights of others
and work through the differences.
That's our responsibility.
♪
Jazz is inherently a call-and-response art form.
♪
The most important skill is to listen.
We have a special guest up here.
(unintelligible)
♪
Imagine if we had a real call-and-response in Congress
where people would listen and then respond
with their ideas.
♪
That fusion of ideas is what creates
a stronger country.
♪
We were looking at all the possible states
for this year to really focus on,
and we thought because of--
Iowa is significant as a swing state
and because of the young leaders
who just got elected in the capital,
we thought it would be a good time
to come here to Iowa and see what's going on.
The next project is a program designed
to have bipartisan colleagues come together,
have meaningful conversations.
And I'm very grateful that this future caucus
has been established.
With that, I want to make sure
that we welcome Steven Olikara,
the Millennial Action Project president.
(applause)
What wows me when I'm in the state capital
is that we have so many young legislators
who are uniting across party lines.
They're legislators...
So it's become a movement.
Youngest representative, youngest senator.
You know, we want to change politics.
Probably going to be the younger leaders
who change it, so, actually, you'll now be invited
to our annual conference.
Okay. Sometimes, like,
with different caucuses and stuff,
I get a little weary because they might be--
slide to one side or the other,
but, yeah, I gotta talk to leadership about it first.
Yeah.
I had a lot of people tell me we would never get
Democratic members and Republican members
to actually sign on.
♪
I remember Steven actually talking to me
back in 2014, 2015,
when MAP was still just an idea,
this kind of bipartisan talking across the aisle,
and I wasn't sure if I thought it was
something that would actually work.
You know, we were both pretty young, right?
I mean, you were a year or two out of...
We were going against the grain
by seeking credibility on both sides of the aisle.
♪
That goes against virtually everything in politics.
♪
People immediately dismiss us and say,
"Oh, they're just a bunch of millennials.
They don't really know what they're doing."
♪
Yeah, there was a lot of discouragement, right?
-Yeah. -Yeah, especially
with people telling him that he's going to have
a hard time convincing people to work together.
You know, at the end of the day,
you have to do something which you really enjoy.
When you die, you have to look back and say,
"Did I have a good life?"
♪
We are in Montgomery, Alabama.
Slidell, Louisiana.
Georgia!
I'm standing in front of the first
White House of the Confederacy.
We thought that this journey was gonna be
about bringing people together.
I don't think we factored in the impact
that these stories would have on us.
Would you say that there are African Americans
who are not familiar with the full history?
There aren't history books written
that capture these realities.
We love Arkansas!
South Carolina, North Carolina,
I could not get past this racial divide.
You have to make your life less comfortable
to understand the experience
that people of color are going through.
Louisville!
Wichita, Kansas.
Welcome to Wyoming.
Bozeman, Montana,
on the way to the Donald Trump rally.
And I was a Trump supporter, and in Jeff,
I mean, he just about didn't let me in his house.
He was just like, "Pfft."
(shouting)
This one person in particular works for an organization
that my whole professional career
has fought against them as a real enemy.
I'm raising money for a good cause,
making sure people get healthcare that they need.
I didn't know this was your house!
-Happy Easter! -Okay, let's go get eggs.
It was cool to see our kids begin
to wrap their minds around injustice.
♪ To you ♪♪
To break it down to the simplest thing,
-it's not fair. -I originally thought
I wasn't gonna be able to work 'cause I have autism
and it makes it harder for me to get a job.
I mean, the way I see it, everyone has challenges.
You can either let it put you down
or you can find the bright side.
I expected to find an enemy.
Instead, I found a family member.
♪
Our daughter, Grace, is six years old,
and the day that she was born
was one of the happiest, toughest days of our lives.
Neither of us had ever met a person with Down syndrome
until that day.
Grace has changed the way that I look at the world
and look at other people,
and that is a gift that hardly anybody can give.
It causes me to look at other people with hope
and not prejudgment
because what you see on the surface
is not always what is within somebody.
She broke down the belief
that certain people have more value than others,
and that started us on a journey
that we're on to this day.
♪
-Hi. How are you guys? -Fine, thank you. Come on in.
-I'm David. -Good morning. Hello, hello.
Just grab something.
It's all gonna be handed out today.
Thanks for taking us around, man.
This is really--really kind of you to do this.
Sure, sure.
Tell me what you're doing today.
-We feed hungry people. -Okay.
So when you deliver this to somebody,
is it their only meal of the day
or just a good start to the day?
-What is here usually... -Sometimes, they tell me
they haven't eaten in five days.
Oh my gosh.
♪
-Hi. How are you? -Good morning.
I'm tagging along with Bear today.
-I'm David. -Henry.
-Good to meet you, Henry. -Cranberries today.
-Thank you. -You're welcome.
-Are you from around here? -Yeah, yeah.
-Family around here? -They don't consider me
as family because of what I'm doing around here,
because I'm just drinking, so I choose to be out here
and I choose to drink.
It's not good, though, it's not good.
I want to stop, it's just gonna take me some time.
Yeah. Is there support to stop?
-I mean, like... -Oh, yeah.
My family comes, they stop by.
Yeah, they get mad at me, stuff like that.
So you know you're breaking the law, right?
Alcohol is illegal in the reservation.
Wake up, man!
♪
So alcohol is illegal on the reservation?
This is a dry reservation.
You know, I might be a friendly guy,
I might be, you know, taught well by my parents,
but there are things that anger me, right?
And when you hurt my people, it really bothers me.
Well, sometimes anger is okay.
Yeah, righteous anger, you know?
♪
Hey, guys.
How's it going? How's it going?
All right, all right.
Yeah. You want some coffee?
-So are you Navajo? -Yeah.
What's one thing you would want to tell people
to help them understand what life is like
on the reservation?
It's like Third World.
Some places, it's like a Third World country
with no jobs here, no opportunities.
It's depressing living on a reservation.
There's no auto parts store.
There's no cafe that you can go and meet and have coffee.
There are thousands of mines across this landscape,
uranium mines never paid us a dime for,
never closed it up and capped it.
That's our reward for being Native American!
We get uranium, we get murder, we get alcohol!
Nobody is doing nothing about it!
I used to serve a lot of people
on the east side of Shiprock.
He dropped his 40, he turned around to pick it up
and a swift truck hit him pretty quick.
Killed him instantly.
Floyd is gone.
And every day I go by at 9:30
and I still look for them.
I still look to see if they're over there,
see if they're hungry.
You know, I love them like a brother would.
And when they go home, yeah, it takes a part of me.
Maybe there's these problems with poverty and alcoholism
because our government
forcibly took them off their land,
removed their homes from them,
punished them for speaking their language,
ripped families apart.
You know, so I feel like I have now a context
of why there's brokenness
and that has led to how things are today.
Our history is so much more dark and complex
than this, like, fairy tale that we're taught.
So we have to reconcile that being an American
for one person is not the same
as being an American for another.
The great line in our founding documents,
"We the People" did not mean "all the people."
Policy cannot accomplish something
that can only happen in a human heart.
We've never been a place where all men are created equal,
but we could be.
Now that we have this, how do we use this
in a constructive way?
♪
When I gave birth to my third child,
there were probably 15 doctors in the room.
The full power of American medicine
was behind that delivery.
And Mechelle, she deserved that
and she didn't get it.
That day was a turning point in my life
when I began to understand for the first time
why you need to say something like, "Black Lives Matter."
In my life previous to that moment,
I didn't understand why it needed to be said.
I thought, "Isn't it obvious that everyone's life matters?"
And the answer is, no, it's not obvious.
And it became clear to me that day why it's so important
that we, as her white brothers and sisters,
come into agreement with the fact
that her life matters and her baby's life mattered.
How horrible is that?
We don't want more or better or different attention
than someone else with a different color skin.
That's not what America is supposed to be.
So if you're shining a light on these stories,
then hallelujah, it's gonna make us better.
I realized that something was shifting inside of me,
and I wasn't becoming a Democrat.
That's not what was happening.
Which has been a big fear for a lot of our friends.
"Oh, no, you guys are becoming Democrats."
It was--it was stepping into someone's story, okay?
And that's different, that has nothing to do with politics.
Yeah. You know, so I think we learned that racism
has been a thing in the past for a long time, but, to me,
I kind of thought that was over.
I thought with the Voting Rights Act,
Civil Rights Act, amend, get over it.
These are just small little things,
but we saw how it manifests still today
in our communities, and it was shocking to us.
When did prayer come involved?
How much does God matter
in terms of what you're doing together?
And how would you, you know, you can be candid with us,
who is God to you?
I don't want to impose my faith on others,
but, for us, God is everything.
I'm gonna push back just a little bit.
-Yeah. -Um, you began with the premise
that things are broken, but would you agree
that not everyone agrees on what is broken?
-Of course, yeah. -There are a lot of people
who'd say, "Well, politics isn't designed
to solve all these problems
that you've talked about tonight."
But we want to share these stories
with the people from our world
who don't know that there's a problem.
But I think the hard part is to talk about these things
in platitudes, because I think every one of us would say,
"Yeah, there are things that are broken,"
but we wouldn't necessarily agree
with what they are and what the solution is.
I've seen a level of brokenness in this country
that you haven't seen, and you've seen a level
of unbrokenness that I haven't seen.
And that's why it's super difficult
to get everyone, as you say, to do this thing
that's reconciliation.
I guess part of it is kind of me thinking,
I wonder if it's even possible.
I don't know if it's possible.
♪
If you look very closely, you can see
that her ear is kind of closed.
When Heather was born, she only had one ear open.
That encouraged her to be more recognizing
of people being treated unfairly.
I learned a lot from her over the years.
I was struggling to understand white privilege
'cause I thought, "My parents and I worked
for everything we got."
My kids grew up being called "trailer trash,"
but that's not what white privilege is about.
(engine puttering)
Your daughter was fighting the real fight, was she not?
And you taught her that.
And so, here in Cleveland, the same thing is going on,
because it is when things like this happen
that we see the true power.
It was an incident that happened that...
It really screwed with our lives.
I'm trying not to get emotional, I'm sorry.
My 15-year-old sister,
she was jumped at busted her teeth.
I tell my mom to call the police.
Make a police report
'cause that's all we can do.
My mom tried everything, doin' it the right way,
and we got charged with felony two.
Oh!
It's a hard struggle.
Um, a couple of things.
I wear today Angelo Miller.
Angelo Miller was killed by police,
and I wanna say I thank you
for standing up
for people who can't stand up for themselves.
-Amen! -I just wanted
to come here and say that.
What I hear from you guys, unfortunately,
I hear a lot of places.
And believe it or not, there are still a lot of people
who would never believe your story.
I know your story is true, I have heard that story
in so many places across the country.
So, we have a lot of work to do.
Thank you so much.
(applause)
A lot of people think that
there are no racial issues whatsoever.
Why are we treating people unequally?
Thank you.
When any of us is marginalized,
-we are all marginalized. -That's right.
That's right.
Part of the reason I do what I do
is because parents are losing their kids
in tragic circumstances all the time.
That's what I'm trying to prevent.
-Rob! -Susan!
What's your official title now?
I'm a professor, so, um,
they call me Professor Lee.
I just go by Rob most days.
It is my distinct privilege
to introduce to you Susan Bro.
When I met Susan, she came up to me,
gave me this huge hug
that I didn't deserve,
and I apologized to her
because my ancestry has been filled with hate and racism.
The statue of my ancestor was the reason
that many people were marching on Charlottesville.
Susan looked at me, and she said,
"Don't apologize.
Do something about it."
(applause)
Thank you, good morning.
On August 12th, I joined a club
that no mother ever wants to join
where you have a child
who is removed from your life.
She was just 32 years old,
finding her voice.
She showed up.
You say, "Okay, that happened a year ago.
What does that have to do with anything?"
Well, here's what I would like you to take away from this.
There is a great divide in our country,
and I think it's probably a good thing.
We're finally looking at issues
that we have glossed over.
What I hear from people of color
is white people annoy the heck out of 'em
when they say, "I don't see color.
Race isn't important to me.
All lives matter,"
because how it sounds to them is
"I have to see you as another white person
in order to accept you."
I used to say those same things.
What they would like us to say is,
"I see your color, I see your heritage.
I recognize them, I celebrate them with you."
And therein lies the difference.
Be willing to understand
we as white people have had a free ride in a lot of ways,
even if we've struggled from poverty all the way up.
We still have layers of protection
that other people don't necessarily have.
So we have to rethink
a lot of the structures of our country.
Simply glossing over,
and everybody hugging each other
and singing Kumbaya is not gonna solve anything.
We have some serious issues to work on.
♪
I just hope everybody stays calm in court
because I've seen how the evidence
has triggered people in the past.
♪
One problem is
Heather's death,
nor many major hate crimes,
are not counted as hate crimes in the FBI statistics,
but we've gotta change the way we report hate crimes.
In your own words, can you just kind of
go over your platform points?
You know, Kansas is at the geographic center
of the United States.
Does it discourage you at all that you've been trailing behind
-your opponents? -I'm still confident
we can win this race.
All eyes are on Kansas
in a heated governor's race
that's too close for anyone to predict.
I was proud that he'd go as an independent.
I think that's the only way you can run
without selling your soul.
Hopefully, people can see that there are more choices
than just being an R or a D.
Both sides play the same games.
It does not a damn thing for the country.
I would like to ask you where you stand on the LGBTQ?
I've got a brother who's gay, I understand that.
I wouldn't wanna create an environment
where he felt like he couldn't build
a full and complete life in Kansas.
Thank you.
(applause)
A poll taken in August shows Laura Kelly
ahead one point of Kris Kobach,
and Greg Orman with 12 percent of votes.
The candidates are vying for every last vote.
You feel re-energized out of it?
You know, I think as we travel the state,
it's very clear to me that we're pulling votes
from across the political spectrum.
Welcome the next governor of the state of Kansas,
Greg Orman!
(cheering)
Thank you very much.
I'm actually gonna open it up to questions.
Some of the recent polls don't give you
very high percentage of the polling vote.
There's no question we're behind,
but I also very much believe we can win this race.
It's a little hard for me to think
that you're gonna move that many percent
in a little over a month.
The biggest single issue
facing an independent candidate
is psychological.
People tend to make decisions now more based out of fear
than on what we can become as a country.
But when fear dominates,
it's hard to break through.
♪
Somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of Americans
call themselves independents.
They're saying, "Hey, I'm a combination of things.
I wanna vote for people I trust."
Where are all those independents in our state legislatures,
in the House of Representatives and Senate?
There are very few independents
because we have now two parties
that control institutions,
which parties were never meant to control.
We've gotta return the institutions
that determine our lives to the people,
not to the parties.
-Hi, how's everyone? -Good!
I don't know why anyone would want
to work in politics, honestly.
He wants to be a public servant.
We're just getting going here.
I am your moderator, Nick, and I'll be guiding everyone
through this telephone town hall tonight.
His passion is to change the way
and the direction the state is.
-Hi, Scott, how are you? -Yes, sir,
I wanted to know your stance on the second amendment.
Just succinctly, I am a gun owner,
but I also believe we can honor the second amendment
and have reasonable firearm safety laws.
Any kind of conflict, like he's really great at
looking at it and saying, "Okay, there's a way
that we can fix this"
where everyone comes out feeling whole.
Hi, Chuck, how are you?
Fine, Mr. Orman.
I'm retired military,
and me and my friends meet for coffee every morning.
We just know you're gonna be the next man,
and we're all very excited to see you in there.
He sees something that's broken,
and he can really fix it.
Our next question is coming from Dolores.
Hi, Dolores, how are you?
I'm fine.
I'm glad to hear your voice.
I am wondering
why you don't drop out of the race
because I don't see a snowball's chance in Hell
that you're gonna be able to get in there.
♪
-Welcome to California! -Thanks!
Forty-six of fifty sates so far.
You were a politician, that's very important.
Staffer, not like an elected official.
I was kinda behind the scenes.
-Operative, if you will. -Operative, okay.
What was the trigger point
that the two of you got together and said,
"You know what, let's do this"?
The brokenness that we saw in our country
in this last presidential election.
We saw Americans really wanting to destroy one another,
and that was different than having political disagreements.
I had been part of what had caused that in the past,
so for me this was an opportunity
to do something in the opposite side of that.
Has it changed your approach in the way that you
deal with other people, or people who
perhaps won't even change their minds?
Absolutely because it's really not about
where you stand, and where I stand on an issue.
It's really more about hearing your story.
If I can sit down with you,
and just listen to you tell your story,
then I'm gonna find a way to connect with you
as a human being
It's 8:00 in the morning,
and we woke up in San Diego,
and we're headed down to the border
to go into Tijuana.
A month ago a story came out
about the migrant caravan that was coming up
from Central America.
The media can take information
and present it in a way
that creates a narrative
that they want to create,
but there's also the reality
that there are families
who are walking 2,500 miles,
and there's a reason for that.
I wanted to find out what the reason is.
What are they announcing right now?
He was calling out the names of the people
that need to get all their stuff together
to get moved to the other one.
(speaking foreign language)
I'd love to hear where you're from,
and why you came.
Her husband was kidnapped,
and an extortionist coming at her and saying,
"I want money, or I'm gonna take your children."
And she doesn't know where her husband is,
or if he's alive.
She walked here with five kids somehow
into a situation like this
with nowhere to go.
It's just hard to imagine.
I wish there was something I could do
to help her.
♪
I do meet a lot of people who say,
"What could I possibly do to make a difference?
I'm not a senator.
I'm not a CEO.
I don't have any power,"
and I really empathize with them
because we're all ordinary people in the end.
But I think each of us have a certain kind of power.
And at whatever level we live,
I think we make a difference.
Every time you interact with someone else
you can either express decency, and empathy, and care,
or fear, and animosity, and judgment.
The key thing is to feel like
we're part of the solution for our own lives.
♪
I went on this journey
trying to figure out what's causing the problem,
and I found out that I am part of the problem.
It exposed something in myself that I didn't wanna see
that's deeply rooted in all of us,
the belief that certain people
have more value than others.
It has been hard for me to come to terms
with the darkness that lies inside of me.
And that darkness judges people before I meet them.
And that's a,
that's a hard thing to face.
It was horrendously difficult
and full of tears,
asking the question, "What in the hell
are we doing right now?
Why are we here?"
We have no home to return to.
We have no job to return to.
I've never felt more irresponsible in my life,
but the transformation that we're going through
in our minds, and in our hearts
is worth every penny of this.
We felt a responsibility
to take these stories and to share them
with people like me,
who don't know there's a problem,
and that feels impossible.
♪
When I look at this nationally,
it's hard to be optimistic.
But meeting people across the country
who have a passion to see our divisions heal,
that gives me hope.
♪
There's no question there are obstacles
that independents face.
♪
Oftentimes, they're prohibited
from participating in debates.
They try to make it like
the independent doesn't have a chance to win,
and therefore why would you vote for 'em?
♪
My process for becoming an independent
has occurred over a long period of time.
My dad was a Republican, and my mother was a Democrat.
Becoming an independent may have been a way to bridge
the divide between my mother and my father.
Greg always uses the analogy of
a couple going through a bitter divorce.
We've gotten to a point
and maybe we need a mediator,
and maybe that's what
independent politicians could be.
This is my daughter Imogen.
The average American family
hadn't seen a pay increase
in 17 years!
It doesn't feel like you're treading water.
It feels like you're drowning,
and that's one of the reasons
I continue to work so hard
to break the stranglehold
because it's put us in a very, very bad spot.
We're going to continue to make progress,
but it's going to take a long time.
-Okay. -I think you're good.
♪
When we were getting the Millennial Action Project
off the ground,
of course there was a lot of skepticism.
They thought this idea of bringing people together
across party lines and empowering young legislators
was too idealistic.
♪
Some people, without even meeting,
would close the door.
People were looking for reasons to dismiss us.
♪
I was 23 when we were getting it off the ground.
I did have some moments where I felt
"Why do I think I can do anything about this
huge problem?"
♪
I think people are often quick to dismiss
bold new ideas,
and even quicker to dismiss those ideas
if it comes from young people.
Our bold new idea is the bold new idea
of the founding of the country,
which is an E Pluribus Unum society.
"Out of many, one."
♪
As Bobby Kennedy said,
and the greatest stake in the future."
So it's really important to listen to the next generation.
♪
We're on our way to the first day of the trial.
I don't really expect any sort of closure from this.
If it stops somebody else from doing the same thing,
then it's worthwhile.
The man accused of ramming his car
into a crowd appeared in court.
Now, this is expected to be a high-profile case.
It's expected to last three weeks.
If convicted, one of those charges
could result in the death penalty.
I don't hate him.
Hate is caustic
to the person who hates.
I'm glad I'm not the one
who has to place judgment on him 'cause...
...he murdered my child.
Her loss is a hole in the family.
It's a hole in my heart.
It's a hole in every celebration that we have.
It's not right that people had to wait
till a white girl was killed
to go "There's a problem."
Heather got all this attention,
but too many mothers
are going through this all the time.
♪
That corner, guys, or this corner?
♪
How 'bout right here?
Good afternoon.
A United States district judge determined that
Mr. Fields deserved to spend
the rest of his life in federal prison,
and imposed that sentence.
Susan, what do you think?
I'm very happy he got life in prison across the board.
I did not want the death penalty.
Blood on my hands.
Did this sentence help you?
Knowing that he won't be out again
to cause more harm to more people helps.
Knowing that a clear message has been sent
hoping to prevent other deaths, that helps.
The last time I saw my daughter was to identify her body,
and I held her bruised hand and bruised arm,
and I said, "I'm gonna make this count for you."
And that's what I've done.
You don't get to knock my child down
and silence that voice without 500 more raising up.
Other than that, I'm kinda done with him,
and I'm moving on with my life.
I have things to do.
♪
(truck honking)
(cheering)
♪
We made it back to Texas!
♪
It feels kinda foreign.
Because it isn't home anymore, you know.
Mm-hm.
Heavenly Father, thank You for this day,
and thank You for Erin and Dave,
and all the adventures that they have been on.
Father, I thank You for bringing us all
together through the years.
We love you so much, amen.
Amen.
So we would get to a new state,
we'd park, and hook up, and all that,
and then we would just kinda start
learning about where in the heck we are.
Sometimes we'd pull up in places,
and we'd know nothing.
What are the big stories here?
What are the areas of division?
It's just something different everywhere,
-and then you'd find out-- -You didn't find one
central theme necessarily,
or it felt different every single place you went?
You know, the biggest disparities that we saw
were against Blacks, and against Natives.
And we weren't looking--
It wasn't like we went in,
It was just like, "What's the story?"
And we would find in every single city
-this tragic story. -And so, I think what we found
in this country
we've never been forced to deal with the things
that have caused
to where we are today.
And so to heal them,
we have to go pretty far back.
Did you ever meet anybody that didn't wanna talk to you?
So we're in Savannah, Georgia kinda early on in our trip,
and I'm reaching out to this guy
who's a real kind of community leader in Savannah.
-African American gentleman. -African American guy,
he's 85 years old.
He's lived in Georgia his whole life,
so he's seen lots in his days in Georgia.
And he goes, "David,
you know, even if I had time to meet with you,
-I don't think I would." -Oh, okay.
-I was like, "Okay, all right." -Did he give a reason?
He goes, "It's hard to be reconciled
with someone who has a boot on your neck."
-Wow. -That is not
the America that I believed that I lived in.
He saw me as a white guy outsider
walking up to him standing over here
where he's got a boot on his neck.
And for me to come up to him and say,
"Hey, can't we all just get along?"
But before we do that, we've gotta deal with the boot.
I had to realize that he associated me
with the man standing on top of him.
So has it changed how you vote?
Or whether you vote at all?
Um, I think it will change the way I vote,
but I don't think I'm Democrat now.
I'm not drawn to either party.
I think they're both part of the problem.
So, I voted for Donald Trump
in the last presidential election.
I wasn't wild about either candidate,
but I will never vote
I'll vote for a human being
who I resonate with.
Where are you gonna take the RV and go next?
We're gonna drive the RV from Dallas
to Charlottesville.
Okay. And why Charlottesville?
I don't know is probably my best answer.
We've just seen the doors open there.
And so, that's where we're goin'.
Okay, let's raise a toast
to the deep treasures
that you have discovered
in all 50 states.
-God bless America. -Yeah, amen!
-Cheers! -Cheers.
Cheers to that.
Thank you for tellin' me that.
♪
People around the country
where early posts still have the candidates
too close to call.
Is that what we're seeing in the reporting now,
-is advanced and early? -Yeah.
Thank you for being here.
-that you've done. -You're welcome.
What's that?
MSNBC has called it for Laura.
-Called it for Laura? -They called it for Laura.
Well, you know, she would be my second choice.
I know for a lot of people that's the case.
♪
I'm callin' Laura.
-You okay? -Yeah.
Yeah, they called it for Laura,
-so I'm gonna call her. -Did they?
Yeah.
Good luck (unintelligible).
Okay, will do.
Hi, senator.
Congratulations on
an incredibly impressive victory.
♪
Yeah, I know you will.
(crowd murmuring)
Yeah, you have a great night.
Okay, bye-bye.
I have to say how very grateful I am
to the voters who stood up
despite the fact that they were being told
they were wasting their vote.
We will eventually break through the 164 years
of two-party stranglehold
on our politics.
What has been the most gratifying thing
is all of you in this room tonight.
I've heard people say that my family
is a little overbearing at times,
but I have to tell you there's nothing that feels better
when the people who know you the best
are so very dedicated to you.
Thank you so much for everything you've done.
Have a good night.
(cheering)
It's amazing to be at our third annual
Future Summit, thank you.
(applause)
So, this is just
a very overwhelming moment.
I'm destroying it.
Back in 2013,
a few friends and us came together.
Sorry, I don't know if I'm gonna get through this.
It's a lot of people stepping up to believe in this mission.
And to get to this point
really means a lot.
(applause)
Thank you very much,
and onward.
(applause)
Everyone who's here,
we see this as a calling.
This is not just a job.
It's so cool to see our vision on display.
We bring 60 state legislators together
from across the country, across party lines.
Speaking of the spirit of bridge-building,
being here in Nashville,
music has been a powerful force in our country
to bring people together.
So, we're gonna incorporate some of the Nashville music scene.
We're gonna get Steven Olikara on drums.
Democracy is, at its best,
a boisterous jazz ensemble.
I'm a state representative out of Montana.
I'm a state representative from Oregon.
I'm a state senator in Hawaii.
I'm a state representative in Florida.
I'm 23 years old, and I'm Republican.
♪
I am 26 years old, and a Democrat.
I'm a Republican, and I'm 34 years old.
I'm a member of the Republican party.
Member of the Democratic party.
-I'm a Republican. -I'm a Democrat.
-A Republican. -A Democrat.
-A Republican. -I'm a Democrat.
I'm 27 years old.
♪
There wasn't enough listening across the aisle happening.
The only way that we're ever gonna bridge the divide
is if we actually have these conversations.
Republicans, Democrats are not your enemy.
Democrats, Republicans are not your enemy.
Our enemies are the problems that we need to solve.
Good jobs, affordable housing, education.
This is what the future caucus is gonna work on.
It's gonna be young people are gonna have to live out
the actual ramifications of the policy.
If we just sit on the sidelines,
and let the generation before us do it,
we won't have any leadership.
♪
Letting young people carry the torch.
We have to recruit younger folks.
Get regular people talking
with their friends and families about politics.
We can aspire to make the system better than we found it.
We're actively trying to find solutions.
You can have those candid conversations,
and they may get heated.
Be a little more civil, and you both might
learn a little bit.
your voice there.
You have to get to know each other.
We're not too far off.
♪
I'm elated that this all worked out.
And so if anyone's wondering
what the future of our political system will look like,
it's here.
♪
They're on the frontlines
of reuniting our country.
♪
(applause, cheering)
♪
We right or left?
We're on the right.
It's a cute neighborhood.
Oh, here we are.
Okay, you guys ready to go see your new house?
Yes!
Let's do it.
Here we go!
Wow!
There's not a good why.
I think the main answer to why Charlottesville
is I don't know yet.
♪
Look who's here!
Okay, doorbell.
Let's go see who's here.
Hello.
-Come on in. -I'm Erin.
I'm Susan.
Pleasure to meet you.
This is Grace, she's a hugger.
I hope you're not big on personal space
'cause this one will invade it.
-I'm David. -Hey, Alfred.
Why in the world are you sitting at our table
is the million dollar question, I guess.
I wanted to help make my community better,
and so I volunteered on a campaign.
I worked at many different levels
to incite fear or anger against the other side.
What I've found is that it's two systems
fighting for power,
and the American people are, um,
getting left by the wayside.
To know that you were part of this team
that are purposefully trying to create this division.
It makes sense 'cause if you make the other side weaker...
-You have power. -...you get power.
And so, you worked with Heather?
Mm-hm.
and I wanna honor you as a mom
because I see the way that you have picked up
on something that you didn't ask for,
and you've carried it with grace.
Not always.
I didn't wanna come today.
I started watching your video,
and I was so angry with you!
So angry with you
for stirring up opposition.
And I knew if I could just come and talk to you,
I could find the human being on the other side.
You connected my involvement in the political system
to the murder of your daughter,
and that's--I gotta wrestle with that a little bit.
I don't hold you responsible for Heather's death,
-do you understand? -Yeah, yeah.
Because bottom line,
nobody made him put his foot on the gas pedal.
I appreciate the fact
that when you saw what you were doing was causing harm
to the country,
you stopped immediately and said,
"How can I undo that harm?"
I feel just a responsibility now
to be a part of shaking up that system.
I think that
giving your kids the mindset that you have
will have a huge impact.
Thank you for saying that.
Little things like walking in the door,
and your daughter grabbing Alfred's hand,
and pulling him in.
What little girl would see Black guy,
and just be so open and welcoming?
You know, that's--I noticed that right off the bat.
-Wow. -I didn't notice that.
That's awesome.
You guys opened up and decided,
"There's something wrong, we gotta fix this."
And it takes a white female to teach other white females
about how they need to make this change.
Susan, I think that
there's power when you come out on these issues
-to say something. -We have an obligation
and a responsibility,
once we are awake,
to wake up other people.
If I do that, and then they each do that,
and then you guys each do that,
then you can have this tsunami of change.
This is not a political movement,
it's all a heart movement.
Agreed.
Nothing will teach you like having a theory,
and it getting totally blown up in your face.
'Cause our original thing was
"Let's just host dinners with Democrats and Republicans,
and see if they can, like,
sing Kumbaya by the end.
(laughing)
♪
Today's the subcommittee's first hearing
on how America is addressing the rise
of a particular form of domestic terrorism,
violent white supremacy.
First off, let me state
that there is an act, um,
under consideration right now,
Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer Hate Crime Reporting Act.
How did you come to be able to
articulate these points,
and how do you educate others?
We need to recognize our differences,
taking time to listen to one another,
taking time to talk to one another,
and actually thinking about what we have in common,
finding points of connection.
And from there, we can work through our differences.
♪
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪♪
MAP is continuing to grow extremely fast.
It is remarkable within one generation
a family can move to the United States,
and their children can have a direct impact
on government.
♪
We're going through massive shifts right now.
The biggest thing we can do is build a common understanding
because through that understanding,
we see the humanity in each other.
We need to try much harder
to find compassion.
♪
After the election,
I started paying attention to things
that I had neglected for the prior year.
♪
Obviously, we started this campaign
fully intending to run a campaign to win.
♪
I would far prefer to lose an election,
but have given myself the chance
to actually improve the lives of people.
♪
I don't want my daughters growing up thinking
you shouldn't do something
if you think there's a possibility of failing.
♪
The two campaigns that I've run
have really been
moments during a decade-long effort
to really change our system of government.
♪
For a long time, people said
no one would break the four-minute mile.
When we broke those psychological barriers,
well, we ultimately were able to achieve a lot more
than we thought we would.
♪
So today on the podcast,
we're going to be talking with Mechelle Brown
in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
So, here we go!
It is so nice to speak with you both.
Our time together has shaped our lives.
Well, I felt honored to meet both of you as well.
Because you were so genuine and open,
I felt that I could be vulnerable.
You opened our eyes,
and I just--I cannot tell you
how thankful I am.
It has stuck with me so because
it was the first time that I had shared
my experiences with a white person.
It's not a story that I've shared often with anyone.
I think that that was just the time that God had ordained
'cause it was healing for me.
It made me aware of how
I had pushed it to the side.
♪
You have helped us heal
from racism in our own hearts.
Reconciliation is possible
when you have people being open enough
to have really honest dialogue.
I just want you to know that
we love you, we truly love you
in the depths of our heart.
Thank you, love you too.
There's no one magic solution to fix democracy.
We've gotta do it at the grassroots level,
in legislatures, in town councils,
in the school systems.
We have to be reuniting all the time,
every day in our lives.
Don't be afraid
of difficult conversations.
Don't be afraid to reach out to someone
who might not believe exactly like you believe.
And this I actually learned from my daughter,
take a minute and say,
"Can you talk to me?"
We have to start thinking of people
different than ourselves
as potential allies,
and as part of the solution.
Being a bridge builder isn't about
compromising your beliefs.
It's about standing up for your beliefs,
but respecting your adversary
when they do exactly the same thing.
The divisions run a lot deeper
than we ever could have imagined,
but so does the depth of love
that we've seen in people.
Meeting people across the country
who have a passion to bridge divides,
that gives me hope.
As citizens, we like to say, "I have rights as a citizen."
We do have rights,
but we also have responsibilities,
and that's working through our differences
when our rights clash.
I want people to declare their independence.
Tell elected officials
"You no longer can take my vote for granted.
You gotta earn it by solving problems."
There are already millions and millions of Americans
crossing the divide every day.
That's why our country hangs together.
Our country is resilient,
but we can't take democracy for granted.
The genius of America is that it's our responsibility
to fix it.
Everyone has a role to play
in reuniting the country.
♪
I'm Bill Doherty.
I'm one of the cofounders of Braver Angels.
I'm Joan Blades, and I'm a cofounder
of Living Room Conversations.
My name is Tru Pettigrew,
and I am the founder of Tru Access.
What started off as conversations
that involved law enforcement
and the Black community
has expanded significantly to include all walks of life.
I'm Pearce Godwin, I founded the Listen First Project.
I'm Robb Willer here at Stanford,
and I'm the director of
My name is Kristin Hansen.
AllSides Connect
to engage in conversation on difficult topics.
Braver Angels is bringing conservatives and liberals
together to depolarize America.
-My name is Maso Kalima. -I'm John Gable.
My name is John Wood, Jr.
As an African American Republican,
maybe I could build the bridge
between the two sides of the political conversation,
and also in the racial conversation.
Our responsibility is
to really listen.
The Listen First Movement is about bridging divides
with conversation.
People tend to distance themselves
from that problem of polarization.
I think the truth is that we're all a part of this,
but it's also good news
A lot of spaces where we are divided
is rooted in fear.
Simply put, we can choose courage.
There is a huge desire
among human beings to connect.
We all want the same thing,
and we're so much more alike than we are different.
And so we created the Bridge Alliance,
which is now a network of over 100 organizations.
All Sides is part of a much bigger movement
that's underway in our country right now
to break down divides.
There's a whole bridging movement
all around the country that are doing wonderful work.
And with 1,000 different organizations in the U.S. today
working to bridge divides...
We invite everyone to join the thousands
who have already signed the Listen First pledge.
There's almost the right organization
for any American who wants to get involved.
♪