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I’m a conservative who worked for Republicans on Capitol Hill and for Republican campaigns before joining the social sector, which makes me something of an outlier. Americans holding conservative values and perspectives tend to be underrepresented in our work — a fact, I believe, that severely limits our reach and impact. In an age of partisan parity, toxic polarization, and rampant distrust, many of our missions will fail if we can muster support only from people who think — and vote — like we do.
What to do? For more than a decade, I have served as a leader of the bridging divides movement, which aims to help people connect across differences. What I’ve learned from the work with experts and practitioners translates well for nonprofits and philanthropy that want to unlock greater success by engaging with fellow Americans who have conservative values.
First, let me outline a more nuanced and generous portrait of conservatives than is typical and explain our differences with liberals:
Conservatives tend to be less enthusiastic about change of any kind. In his book On Liberty, the liberal political economist and philanthropist John Stuart Mill argued that “a party of order or stability and a party of progress or reform are both necessary elements of a healthy state of political life.” In this framing, conservatives are the proponents of stability. Instinctually, they are generally more resistant to change and more comfortable with the status quo. Initiatives promising change will likely elicit more excitement from liberals than conservatives.
Conservatives tend to believe in different change agents than liberals. Liberals typically favor government and nonprofits. Conservatives tend to favor the free market and faith communities.
Conservatives tend to have a tighter circle of concern. Liberals typically worry about the broader community, the world, the environment. Conservatives are most often concerned about a more intimate, familiar circle of family, neighbors, and perhaps church community.
Conservatives tend to distrust and suspect what the social sector is selling. In 2002, conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer described as a “fundamental law of politics” that “liberals think conservatives are evil.” True or not, conservatives believe it is, which means they are often guarded in conversations with liberals. Also, conservatives suspect that secular, social “do-gooders” are out to change or enlighten them, a thinly veiled and condescending agenda I’ve witnessed myself. (Are their suspicions wrong? If not, your best intentions to reach across the aisle will be resented and rejected.)
Conservatives often feel misunderstood, harshly judged, looked down upon, and culturally marginalized — “canceled,” in other words. David Allred, creator of Oak Ridge Periodic Tables, a bridging group, summed this up in a discussion on political diversity with the New Pluralists funding collaborative. “I recognize the challenge that many conservatives experience in conversations about poverty, gun ownership, racial healing, and values related to faith in God,” says Allred, who is lead pastor of High Places Community Church in Oak Ridge, Tenn. “We are too often shamed, ridiculed, labeled, or, most often, simply remain silent in these conversations, refusing to participate in what feels like a kind of smug academia.”
Conservatives hear liberal signals a mile away. Both sides of the political spectrum are sensitive to any hint that a message or initiative is from “them,” the enemy. More and more words are getting caught up in a toxic vortex and become signals of your tribal affiliation — signals that can shut down connection before it happens. Conservatives often associate words like “diversity,” “safe space,” and “justice” with a liberal perspective or agenda.
Steps of Engagement
How might nonprofits and philanthropies persuade conservatives to participate and invest in their work?
First, embrace humility. Humility is not only a noble virtue but also a pragmatic asset. My words and actions can have a much greater resonance and impact if I first remind myself that roughly half of my fellow Americans disagree with me on presidential preference and many other important issues. Ignoring or wishing away that reality is not a sound strategy. Also: Seeing half of our fellow Americans as the problem or enemy is arrogant, unjust, and counterproductive.
As my successor at Listen First Project, Karissa Raskin, said in a recent interview, “We have to be able to check our own bias at the door.”
Demonstrate real curiosity in and appreciation for what conservatives bring to your mission. See dignity in and welcome the whole person. As Liz Joyner of The Village Square counsels her fellow liberals, “Believe in your soul that without deeply engaged conservatives, your effort will lack critical insights required to solve problems — insights liberals are likely blind to (even dangers liberals may be blind to).”
Invite conservatives to actively help achieve goals you share and co-create solutions to problems they care about. More in Common’s seminal new report “The Connection Opportunity” finds that “Americans are most interested in working across lines of difference to achieve a mutual goal that improves their community.” Similarly, “people say that the condition that would make them most eager to connect across lines of difference is ‘if we had a common goal we were working towards.’” These findings are broadly true for conservatives as for Americans generally.
Don’t seek agreement on issues unrelated to the mutual goal. In other words, don’t subject conservatives to an ideological purity test. Suspend judgment and extend grace.
Make your mission relevant to a tighter circle of concern. Illustrate how the problem you’re working to solve impacts families, faith groups, neighborhoods, and local communities.
Avoid words that close down the opportunity to connect. Instead of saying “diversity,” for instance, try “variety” or “different backgrounds and beliefs.” “Fairness” is a good alternative to “equity.” Others:
- Inclusion alternatives: welcome, belonging
- Safe Space alternatives: welcome all views, judgment-free, extend grace, supportive environment, respectful space
- Justice alternatives: fairness, right and wrong
- Marginalized alternatives: mistreated, left out
- Racist alternatives: hateful, judging, condescending, prejudiced, discriminatory
Connect on values that tend to be especially salient for conservatives. They tend to believe deeply in:
- Patriotism, faith, and family.
- Strength and safety or security
- Loyalty and duty or calling
- The free market, competition, and meritocracy
- Action, not just talking, which can be seen as passive or weak
I sought to follow my own advice in a recent essay, calling on the patriotism of GOP lawmakers to encourage them to build bridges with the left. “Even with electoral success, our long-term hopes and ideals for America will be thwarted by the insidious forces of toxic polarization — demonization across divides — unless we put patriotism above partisanship,” I wrote in the Ripon Forum, a long-running Republican journal.
Find and cultivate ambassadors. It takes time to build direct relationships and even more time to secure trust — time you may not get. An invaluable asset to speed things along is trusted validators — influential members of the group you seek to engage who have the group’s trust and can vouch for you.
Get uncomfortable and meet conservatives on their turf. It’s easy to invite folks into our spaces on our terms, then complain when they don’t show up. If we’re serious about expanding our tent, we need to take the first step. Go where we conservatives often hang out together — churches, chambers of commerce, Rotary clubs, shooting ranges, football games, country clubs. Feel uncomfortable? You’re probably in the right spot!
When you go, take an open mind and humble spirit of co-creation. That will be infinitely more effective than attempts at recruiting conservatives to advance your pre-set agenda.
A Better Way Forward
The mindsets and skills I’m encouraging are at the heart of the bridging divides movement. Indeed, they form the basis of the metrics by which Social Cohesion Impact Measurement evaluates our programs.
Still, they remain a challenge for all of us. Across the social sector, we’re only human; none of us is immune from the toxic forces pulling everyone apart and working against our goals. In fact, our fervent passion for noble causes can make it harder to resist the “us versus them” doom loop. Yet it’s clear that our work is marginalized if we are seen as “them” to a large segment of our fellow Americans. I believe boldly charting a different path that’s counter-cultural to today’s norms is the best way to advance our missions.
If we aim to win friends and influence people — particularly those less naturally aligned with us — we must see dignity, embrace humility, listen with curiosity, welcome dissent, and courageously pursue the co-creation of a better way forward together.
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