Newsletter #190 — January 3, 2023
by Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess
BI's Massively Parallel Approach
In the videos describing our evolving concept of massively parallel peace and democracy building that we shared in newsletter 179, we made a distinction between two broad groups of massively parallel peacebuilders:
- Conflict Strategists focused on helping us better understand some aspect of the hyper-polarization problem and strategies for limiting those problems, and
- Conflict Actors who focus their efforts on implementing the strategies that make sense in their particular context.
We went on to identify four principal subgroups of conflict strategists:
- Lookouts who warn us about the dangers associated with the continuation of current trends and alert us to opportunities for reversing those trends,
- Torchbearers who help each new generation understand democracy's origins, the problems it was designed to address, its past successes, current challenges, and the things that citizens must do to make it work,
- Complexifiers who dispel the notion that there are simple solutions to our problems in ways that illuminate the dauntingly complex array of challenges that we have to find some way to meet, and
- Defenders who help us identify and respond to threats posed by those who seek to undermine democratic institutions.
In this newsletter, we highlight a relatively large collection of links (roughly organized by theme) that have accumulated over the holidays — links that focus on the work of these conflict strategists. While some of these articles contain important and promising suggestions for limiting a particular aspect of hyper-polarization or other threats to democracy, they (like most writing about the election) tend to focus more on the nature of the problem or the evils of the other side. But, taken together, these articles clarify the daunting depth, scale, and complexity of the hyper-polarization problem and illustrate clearly that there will not be a quick or simple "fix" for U.S. democracy. Just succeeding in electing "our guy" (whomever that is) is not going to fix the problem, and could actually make it much worse.
So using the knowledge gained from reading these articles (and many more), we will be working in the coming months to propose many steps that can be taken to address these challenges, and highlight the efforts of the impressive and growing number of "conflict actors" who are already taking on many of the MPP "Action Roles" to defuse hyper-polarization and strengthen democracy. The challenge for all of us is to take the next step and think about broad strategies for more effectively dealing with the many problems outlined in these articles and, and figuring out what active role each of us can play to help transform our current hyper-polarization and political stalemate into a reconciled society in which everyone would want to live.
As we do this, we will also return to a theme raised in Newsletter 131 where we started to think about how strategists and actors could work together more effectively.
Beyond Intractability in Context
From around the web, more insight into the nature of our conflict problems, limits of business-as-usual thinking, and things people are doing to try to make things better.
- Civic Education
Civic Thought: A Proposal for University-Level Civic Education — An argument for a vastly expanded program of civic education at the collegiate level. We desperately need such programs (provided that they reflect a bipartisan vision of what democracy should be). - Constituencies
Where Have All the Democrats Gone? — A critique of the progressive left and part of an explanation of why Democrats and President Biden are polling so poorly. - Constituencies
Class Conflict and the Democratic Party — Reflections how the Democrats made the transition from being the party of the working class to being the party of the educated professional class. - Constructive Conflict
Disagree Better: As governors of Colorado and Utah, we want to tackle toxic polarization — An encouraging look at steps that governors are taking to limit toxic polarization and earn the trust of the electorate. - Constructive Opposition
The Roots of Trump’s Rage — An overview, with lots of links, of the latest political science thinking on strategies for countering President-Trump's special brand of anger filled politics. - Constructive Opposition
The Left Can’t Afford to Go Mad — Thoughtful reflections on how one can constructively and effectively challenge the many excesses embodied in Trump's campaign and possible Presidency. - Constructive Opposition
Never Trumpers Never Learn — A critique of the tactics used by Trump's opponents and an argument that they might be undermining their own objectives. - Dictatorial Ambitions
Talk of a Trump Dictatorship Charges the American Political Debate — An observation that President Trump and his allies are not trying to reassure voters worried about his dictatorial ambitions. Rather, they seem to be giving people more reason to worry. - Elections
How Authoritarians Manipulate Elections — An explanation of how electoral processes can be manipulated by authoritarian wannabes (with lots of must-learn lessons). - Extreme Tactics
Collusion vs. Stop the Steal — A sobering look at extreme and deceptive tactics being used by both parties and an argument that the Democrats may be as guilty as Republicans. - Extreme Tactics
The Anti-Democratic Quest to Save Democracy From Trump — An argument against using anti-democratic tactics to defend democracy, even when you regard President Trump as a direct threat to that democracy. - Extreme Tactics
US Officials Turned Regime Change Tactics Developed Abroad Against Trump, Evidence Suggests — From a right-leaning perspective, a warning about the sophisticated and unscrupulous tactics being used to sabotage the Trump candidacy. - Geopolitical Implications
Trump ‘Could Tip an Already Fragile World Order Into Chaos’ — An examination of the ways in which another Trump presidency (with the accompanying Democratic opposition and political chaos) could affect the international system. - Geopolitical Implications
The Self-Doubting Superpower — A look at the global implications of the United States' collapse of confidence in its own system. - Global Democracy
Worldwide, 2024 Elections Promise a Whirlwind — While the United States is focused on its upcoming election, a reminder that many other nations are holding elections in 2024 that also face serious challenges. - Hate
Trump Voters Are America Too — An observation that the hateful rhetoric seen on the right is not an aberration. It is a reflection of what we think of each other. (Sadly, the rhetoric on the left is similarly hateful.) - Issues
A War on Blue America — From a left-leaning perspective, an analysis of many ways in which a Trump Presidency could threaten the interests of Democratically-aligned communities. - Issues
What Does the Working Class Really Want? — A pretty persuasive argument that neither Republicans nor Democrats understand the grievances motivating working-class populism. Also missing are proposals for addressing those grievances. - Issues
Blinken Meets With Mexico’s President About Surge in Migration at the Border — A look at the nature and magnitude of the United States' immigration crisis -- something that is likely to play a major role in the upcoming election. - Issues
The Secret of Trump’s Appeal Isn’t Authoritarianism — A thoughtful and surprisingly persuasive argument that much of President Trump's appeal stems from his relatively moderate policies. - Judiciary
A MAGA Judiciary — An examination of the politicalization of the US Judiciary and worries about how a Trump administration could tip the judiciary in ways that would favor Republicans. - Peacemakers
Meet the Americans Trying to Lower the Temperature in Politics — A Wall Street Journal profile of some of the groups that are trying to defuse the United States' hyper-polarized politics. - Police and Military
A Military Loyal to Trump — The beginnings of a look into a true nightmare scenario -- one in which military forces are drawn into our political battles. - Political Complexity
‘I Am Your Retribution.’ Trump Knows What He Wants to Do With a Second Term. — An examination of the evolving strategy that President Trump is promising for his second term. - Political Complexity
American democracy is cracking. These ideas could help repair it. — A hopeful inventory of a great many promising ideas for strengthening US democracy. - Political Disaffection
It's not just Biden -- Incumbents everywhere are unpopular and losing elections. — It is about more than Trump vs. Biden, the public Is losing confidence in a large fraction of its political leaders. - Psychological Complexity
What Will Happen to the American Psyche If Trump Is Reelected? — An essay exploring some of the many ways in which our hyper-polarized politics is affecting us psychologically and physiologically. - Psychological Complexity
The Real Reason for Marriage Polarization — A look at the way in which political hyper-polarization has infected our most intimate interpersonal relationships. - Psychological Complexity
America Feels Like a Codependent Household — An attempt to help us better understand US political psychology by comparing it to dysfunctional family dynamics. - Rule of Law
Alabama and Georgia Defy Federal Courts on Redistricting — For those who recognize the importance of having a clear process through which the meaning of our laws is determined, a worrying case about states defying federal court rulings. - Social Complexity
How Trump Has Transformed Evangelicals — An analysis of how President Trump, with his is questionable personal moral record, could develop such strong support within the evangelical community. - Social Complexity
Behold, MAGA Man — A look at how social pressures have pushed once independent political figures into fully embracing President Trump's narrative about the stolen elections and other issues. - Social Complexity
The Only Thing More Dangerous Than Authoritarianism — From a left-leaning perspective, a warning that unscrupulous politicians may be exploiting their constituents' Christian faith as part of a political power grab. - Social Complexity
The Republican Party is Doomed — An explanation of of the complex array of institutional capabilities that are required to exercise sociopolitical power -- an area where Republicans are at a major disadvantage. - The Authoritarianism Threat
Trump Is Not the Only Reason to Fix This Uniquely Dangerous Law — An argument for reforming the "Insurrection Act" in ways that would eliminate legal loopholes that could be used by an aspiring authoritarian to direct police and military forces against their political opponents. - The Corruption Threat
Trump’s Corruption Unbound — An alarming look at the level of corruption that a second Trump administration seems likely to tolerate. - Us vs. Them
Doom dominates 2024 messaging as Trump and Biden trade dire warnings — A look at the fear (and hate) mongering rhetoric that is now dominating the US Presidential campaign -- rhetoric that is going to make it even harder for one side to accept defeat.
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Graphic Credit: Democratic and Republican icons -- Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/6262122778; By: DonkeyHotey; Permission: CC BY 2.0 DEED https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/; Date Required: December 20, 2023
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Once a week or so, we, the BI Directors, share some thoughts, along with new posts from the Hyper-polarization Blog and and useful links from other sources. We used to put this all together in one newsletter which went out once or twice a week. We are now experimenting with breaking the Newsletter up into several shorter newsletters. Each Newsletter will be posted on BI, and sent out by email through Substack to subscribers. You can sign up to receive your copy here and find the latest newsletter here or on our BI Newsletter page, which also provides access to all the past newsletters, going back to 2017.
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