Reach Out Wisconsin forums are not about “political conversion,” says Cummins (left), shown here moderating a gathering on climate change in March 2015 at the Rigby, a downtown bar.
My nerves were on edge in the hours before last month’s Reach Out Wisconsin forum. I often get a little performance anxiety before moderating an event. But that evening, my usual fears of fumbling an introduction or forgetting an agenda item were barely on my mind.
Reach Out Wisconsin was founded in 2011, soon after the Act 10 protests brought central Madison to a standstill. The founding couples — a pair of Willy Street progressives and a pair of Republican Party activists — believed that we should seek out our political opposites in an effort to better understand them. Their own experience, in getting to know each other, convinced them that mutual understanding fosters mutual respect. They began hosting issue-specific public forums, to get political opposites together in the same room.
The forums were not about political conversion. They were not even about compromising or finding common ground. They were, and continue to be, about maintaining social cohesion in spite of our political differences. And if someone left a forum with a new or more nuanced viewpoint on an issue, then great.
Our topic last month was Donald Trump’s first year as president. As always, we had expert speakers from both sides of the issue: Michael Basford, chair of the Democratic Party of Dane County, and Scott Grabins, his Republican counterpart. (Scott and his wife, Carol, were one of the group’s founding couples.)
I was nervous because political emotions have intensified lately. On a recent 60 Minutes segment, a correspondent asked Portland, Oregon, Mayor Ted Wheeler about his “suddenly pugnacious” midsized, progressive city. The mayor observed that “the ability to disagree amicably is an art much in jeopardy … people take it very personally if you have a different perspective. I would just say we need to lighten up.” But what a challenge, to lighten up when discussing the most polarizing presidency since Abraham Lincoln’s.
I recalled how tense I was before moderating a forum on the Public School Bathroom Bill in late 2016. The ultimately unsuccessful bill would have limited the use of gender-specific Wisconsin public school bathrooms to people born of that gender. To my amazement, the bill’s sponsor in the Assembly, Rep. Jesse Kremer (R-Kewaskum), agreed to spend an evening with us in downtown Madison.
LGBTQ activists came out in force, and at least some of them were very angry about the bill. It would fall to me to keep the peace. But despite a couple of minor flare-ups during the Q&A session, all was well. The unflappable Kremer even made himself available to attendees after the forum concluded.
Reach Out Wisconsin favors a hands-off approach to what is said at our gatherings, short of abusive language, or monologues masquerading as questions for guest speakers. We try to pick speakers who will deliver well-prepared talks with conviction.
The party leaders did just that at the Trump forum. Because the topic concerned his party’s performance, Republican Chair Grabins was naturally on defense, while Democratic Chair Basford was on offense. Basford did not attempt to hide his shock and dismay, touching at times on the Russia investigation and other perceived Trump scandals.
Conservative attendee Kevin Schoen later shared some pointed criticism of Basford’s talk with me. “Based on the fact that he had nothing positive to say, how could anyone on the right take him seriously?” Schoen concluded that Basford merely “read prepared talking points to his base.”
After another recent forum, an attendee complained about “venomous” assertions made by a conservative speaker, such as a claim that excessive Muslim immigration has damaged Europe. But neither that speaker’s assertions nor anything Basford said at the Trump forum were outside the mainstream of their respective polar camps. This is just the way our politics is right now. Reach Out Wisconsin wants to help chill things out, but we can’t insist that people pretend they’re in a moderate mood.
Schoen had a more positive experience at a “Listening Workshop” we hosted this past summer. The event was inspired by UW-Madison professor Kathy Cramer, an expert on polarization in Wisconsin, and her emphasis on listening as a possible key to healing our social divide.
We paired off participants who disagreed on a set of political issues and facilitated dialogue between them. Facilitator Davi Post taught basic active listening skills to help partners understand each other’s political motivations. The insights gained suggest that everyone wants what is best for society.
Most of last month’s Trump forum attendees stuck around for a post-event roundtable dialogue. Some tension arose at the outset. Discussion leader Post let the matter play out, and it de-escalated on its own.
Reach Out Wisconsin is no Kumbaya campfire circle. But my pre-event jitters about unruly confrontations always prove unwarranted. People come to better understand their political opposites, not to agitate them. And as I’ve witnessed over and over again, understanding given is usually rewarded with understanding received.