'Enough of This Red and Blue BS'

A special edition of The Commons newsletter

From senior editor Drew Lindsay: Andrew Hanauer was in the Atlanta airport, traveling with his family, when he first learned of Saturday’s shooting at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania. Hanauer leads One America Movement , a group that helps evangelical, Jewish, and Muslim faith leaders navigate the polarized views that can cleave congregations and poison spiritual unity. The facts and motive of the attack are still under investigation, but Hanauer and others see the shooting as just the latest sign of trouble in the body politic.

“We’re not surprised,” Hanauer told me. “This is where toxic polarization leads.”

One America Movement, which has funding from progressive and conservative grant makers, is part of a growing philanthropic effort to bring Americans together and strengthen communities and ultimately democracy. We created The Commons as a place for deeply reported stories and guest essays to share the work that these organizations are doing. 

Many groups aim to “lower the temperature” — exactly what national leaders from President Joe Biden to House Speaker Mike Johnson are calling for now. Reaction to the assassination attempt from these groups ranges from anguish to hope that it will galvanize America — and perhaps funders. 

Shamil Idriss , CEO of Search for Common Ground , an international peacebuilding organization, says the shooting could tip the country into widespread violence and instability. But in other countries, assassinations and political violence have sometimes sparked exactly the opposite — shocking community leaders and individuals to take action. “Often it’s a bad thing that will shake people out of their stupor.” 

• Read reactions from more than two dozen nonprofit and philanthropy leaders . 

Conspiracies in the Making

At the moment, theories abound on social media about the motive for the shooting, some likely to take on the guise of indisputable fact. Just last week, my colleague Alex Daniels reported on an escalating effort by progressive foundations to fund both newsrooms and social media researchers trying to thwart misinformation. Funders include the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation , the Knight Foundation , Craig Newmark Philanthropies , and Open Society Foundations .

Obstacles, however, are numerous, including accusations from conservatives that such grant making is inherently partisan. “Misinformation is a term of art invented by the left,” said William Schambra , senior fellow at the Hudson Institute .

• Read the full story .

Data Don’t Lie

Even before Saturday’s shooting, research showed that Americans have a wildly exaggerated sense that political partisanship drives violence. Nearly half of Democrats —  45 percent — think Republicans support partisan violence, and 42 percent of Republicans think the same of Democrats, according to the Polarization Research Lab , a collaboration of Dartmouth, the University of Pennsylvania, and Stanford. The reality: Less than 4 percent of Americans back political violence.

This is typical of the fun-house-mirror warp of polarization, according to neuroscientist Todd Rose . Research by Rose and his nonprofit think tank Populace points to a series of “collective illusions” — a faulty sense that the country is more divided than it is, that everyone on the other side of the political fence holds really extreme views. 

We are, his data indicate, a lot more united than we think — an important point, Rose told the Chronicle for a story earlier this year, for philanthropy that wants to defuse polarization.

• Read the full story

The ‘Closing Space’ for Nonprofits

Rachel K. of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is one of the country’s top experts on political violence. You might have already seen her research or Rachel herself quoted in news reports in the shooting’s aftermath. 

When The Commons launched, Rachel shared with us an essay explaining how the space in which U.S. nonprofits operate is closing in, thanks to polarization. “Illiberals on the far right and far left have decided that it’s not enough to persuade: They must eliminate undesirable ideas — and organizations — using whatever power is at hand, their tactics pulled straight from those used by anti-democratic regimes abroad,” she wrote. 

• Read her full essay: “The Coming Attacks on Nonprofits.”