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A guide to better political conversations.

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Political dialogue in the United States is in a rough patch. Even before Covid-19, rising political polarization and partisan extremism, combined with increasingly hardened filter bubbles, mean that conversations with people outside of your own political bubble can easily become a yelling match.

It doesn’t have to be this way–and if our Republic is to thrive in a prosperous future, it can’t continue. We at ReConsider want to help you have better political conversations, finding ways to discuss everything from the pandemic to structural challenges in our electoral system more enriching – one conversation at a time.

If we want to have better political conversations, there are two steps:

  1. Improve how we think about politics
  2. Improve how we talk about politics

The following free guides will help you do just that!

Improving how we think about politics

ReConsider Principles: Train Your Brain

Politics tap into an unusual mixture of reason and emotion. We want to have the right answer, which requires a neutral interpretation of information and events. However, it is human nature to want to feel like we have the right answer, especially when the topic is something we care deeply about.

The ReConsider Principles will help train your brain, reacquaint it with the role emotions have in the decision making process. The goal is to think clearly, logically, and considerately about politics. The four principles are:

  • Internal Skepticism
  • Internal Detachment
  • External Skepticism
  • External Detachment

Click here to get your free copy of the ReConsider Principles, and elevate the level of your political engagement.

Improving how we talk about politics

ReConsider Discussion Strategies: Improve Your Political Conversations

Discussing politics effectively is not a “trick” or a simple technique. Doing it well requires a shift in mindset and attitude. It requires thinking of political conversations less as a sparring match and more as a blend of  a learning experience and a sales call.

The ReConsider Discussion Strategies will help you turn potentially frustrating conversations into positive dialogue, with mutual learning and positive change. The three strategies are:

  • Keeping Political Conversations Civil
  • Learning in a Political Conversation
  • Changing Someone’s Mind

Get your copy of the ReConsider Discussion Strategies right here, and start making real progress in your political conversations.

Reconsider Media sets out to breathe life, tolerance, rationality, reasonableness, and curiosity into political and cultural discourse.

We’re building a community of curious, rational, data-driven people united not by agreeing on every issue in politics, but in a way of approaching the issues with a desire to learn, problem-solve, and drive progress together. We seek to provoke and nurture great conversations, and teach our community the skills to understand each other, find shared values, and learn together. Learn a bit more about the team here.

Our Core Beliefs

  • Deep down most people share similar desires for their lives and the world, preferring to work together rather than be divided
  • Great ideas, clearly expressed, can dramatically improve culture and government
  • Curiously seeking mutual understanding will enable us to find common ground and make real progress
  • Great potential to improve exists everywhere, and we have the power to realize it

Our Core Beliefs

  • We do not tell others what they are supposed to think
  • We challenge our own biases and aim for transparency
  • We seek to challenge conventional and personal beliefs, and to believe only what unbiased data reveal to be true
  • We start by finding agreement with others on first principles and core values
  • We readily admit error and change our beliefs accordingly
  • We maintain respect for those that disagree with us

How We Achieve These

Articles:

  • Publish simple, approachable media meant to challenge core assumptions
  • Create simple exercises and prompts to jump-start great political conversations

Podcast:

  • Challenge the conventional wisdom on critical political issues
  • Arm listeners with the tools to think thoroughly about the issues they face in the future

Publications:

  • Increase understanding of the challenges in democratic politics and political dialogue
  • Dive more deeply into topics where we can increase understanding of each others’ positions
  • Teach the skills and mindsets of effective, enjoyable political dialogue

We’re also a member of the Bridge Alliance, a network of sister organizations all out to fight polarization in the politics of the United States. Go check them out!

ReConsider’s mission:

Fight political polarization and improve the quality of political discourse by providing practical discussion strategies and provocative content that challenges common narratives.

We’re out to fix broken political dialogue, re-engage the middle ground, and work together to drive improvement from shared values and mutual understanding.

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Our Purpose:

Build the Community That Together
Tackles the Toughest Challenges in Politics

We’re nurturing the steady growth of sensible, curious political conversations among the middle ground of politics–without being drowned out by the extremes. These conversations will help us to make better political decisions than ever before and propel the world forward.

Do you hunger for facts? Do you believe we’re able to seek understanding? Will you be a leader of thoughtful dialogue?

Learn more about us!
Our Core Values and Beliefs
About the Team

What We Offer?

Provocative Ideas, Practical Teaching,
and Curious Community

Our resources are meant to help our community and the world to improve their political discussions to find shared values, achieve mutual understanding, and work together across ideological lines.

Podcast

Co-hosts Xander and Erik help listeners engage with pressing and challenging political issues, either current or timeless, in a way that helps them better make their own decisions.

Blog

Stimulating, challenging ideas to get you thinking thoroughly and prime you for your next great political conversation.

Publications

In-depth explorations of the nature of partisan politics, and guides to having great political dialogue, in books and videos.

Wedged
Buy on Amazon

Widged: How You Became a Tool of the Partisan Political Establishment, and How to Start Thinking for Yourself Again

Our first book, Wedged, uncovers the roots of political polarization in the United States, how each of us unwittingly participates in driving hyperpartisanship, and what we can do to fight back.
A wedge has been driven into American politics by powerful political, social, and economic incentives that are very difficult to overcome.  The middle ground has fallen out of the political process, leaving power in the hands of hard-line partisans that frame the national agenda and direct our political energy towards emotionally satisfying–but politically unproductive–tribal warfare.
In Wedged, authors Erik Fogg and Nathaniel Greene take readers through a compelling, thorough, and accessible explanation of how Americans–from voters to politicians to media–participate in the process that is tearing the nation apart. Readers will understand the history and process behind growing partisan gridlock, and explore the wedge issues used to hijack us into being tools for the political machine.
Learn more at http://www.wedgednation.com or buy it today on Amazon.