Our Common Purpose Special Newsletter: 5 Things You Can Do to Address Political Violence

The Our Common Purpose project is based on the premise that when we work together to strengthen our constitutional democracy, we help create a virtuous cycle -- one in which a culture of participation and responsibility gives rise to responsive institutions, which in turn foster healthy civic norms and values.  

It is time to say, again: violence is not the answer. Violence is antithetical to the virtuous cycle that Our Common Purpose seeks to create, and to the future we want to see for the next generation. It is up to all of us to step up to address political violence in our country. Here are five things you can do:  

1. Commit to nonviolence. As OCP co-chair Danielle Allen wrote in her recent column for The Renovator, “The most important message is this: We can all help reduce political violence by committing to using only non-violent methods of dispute resolution. Our shared safety depends on it. The functioning of our institutions of self-government depends on it…. The first rule of the public sphere is that we should never hold human dignity hostage—neither our own by descending to violence and deceit, nor that of others through attacks on their being—whether in word or deed.” 

2. Condemn political violence. As Rachel Kleinfeld points out, most acts of political violence are committed by lone individuals with underlying predispositions to violence in misguided efforts to feel important. If the larger community applauds these acts, it encourages more people like them to choose this path – and the resulting violence can eventually draw even ordinary people into its vortex. However, the vast majority of Americans do not support political violence, and if such acts are swiftly and consistently condemned and prosecuted, violence will remain relatively contained.  

3. Practice “humanizing habits” to recognize and address the pain so many Americans feel. OCP co-chair Eric Liu urges us to see others “in their full complex humanity” and to sense their pain: “There are so many other kinds of pain making our politics tumultuous in every quarter, shaping how people show up or don't in the lives of their towns and neighborhoods…. There are ways to relieve pain that involve inflicting it on others, and there are ways to relieve pain that involve solving problems with others, making sense of things together, and in the process making each other more wholly human.”  

4. Talk with someone with whom you disagree. OCP Commission Member Yuval Levin notes that "we spend most of our time cocooned away with people we agree with, talking about those terrible people on the other side, but rarely actually talk to those people.” Turning down the temperature requires us to disagree with each other "more directly and concretely,” keeping in mind that our political adversaries “will still be here tomorrow; they will be part of any future we build.”

More resources on disagreeing better: 

• Habits of Heart and Mind: How to Fortify Civic Culture – A publication of the Academy’s Civic Culture Working Group, outlining seven strategies to reshape how we live together as Americans. One Strategy: Create space for the free exchange of ideas.

• Disagree Better – An initiative of the National Governors Association spearheaded by Utah Governor Spencer Cox. You can also read about this initiative here and here.

• Better Arguments Project – A national civic initiative created by the Aspen Institute to help bridge divides.

• Less Fire, More Water. Less Darkness, More Light – A blog post by Liz Joyner, President of OCP Champion The Village Square.