Breaking the Deadlock

- Folks, I have one last chapter of our story to unfold.

What would you say to all of us about what we can do differently to protect American democracy?

- We have to somehow step back from demonizing those we disagree with.

It used to be that the other guy had a bad idea.

Now the other guy is a bad guy, and you can't compromise with that.

We have to find a way to speak with one another again.

But first and foremost, we have to break this trap that we find ourselves in, of demonizing the other side.

- Learn to disagree without being disagreeable.

Respect each other's points of view as if their opinions matter just as much as yours.

This is the most durable, sustainable democracy, so long as we participate and respect our neighbors when we do so.

- But I think the stories we tell about our own democracy really matter.

But I do think that a narrative of democracy, that this was a stable working thing is not true.

I think this is like a narrative that has to become more complicated.

That it was always a work in progress, that it was always exclusionary, that it was always bigoted, that it was always violent, and that's hard.

And so I feel like when that story is told to expand out what America has been, it will be easier for us to see each other as working through a difficult experiment like the people who came before us.

- Our founding fathers were not infallible.

They were quite brilliant to forge basically outta iron, an entire new system of government for a society that thought only God appointed kings could make decisions.

They believed the people that we would vote and elect into positions of power would adhere to high ethical norms and standards.

- Look, our founding fathers created a system where state legislatures can do extraordinary things to control the electoral, how the electors vote.

But they also said that the system requires people to act with integrity.

All elected officials, all electors and all voters should act with integrity.

- I there's a small change to that 'cause the system doesn't say, it doesn't require that you act with integrity, it's unwritten.

Correct.

- This guy and I agree on almost nothing when it comes to elections in real life.

And yet in this hypothetical, which I think should serve as the example, we're willing to sit next to one another, participate, have the discussion, and have the conversation.

This is what America should look like.

Maybe more this than that, but it is...

This is what it's supposed to be about.

And while the art of governing is one thing, the art of campaigning ought to be seen as something we can compartmentalize, that we're not gonna take the viciousness of a campaign and those attacks that are seemingly inevitable and use those characterizations when we have to sit around and make decisions with one another.

We can do that without making judgments about one another.

And that's why actually walking in here, I was a little bit challenged.

Mr. Kobach and I have never actually met.

But if this is the way we're gonna start breaking the ice, then let's do it.