Smith - Remaking the Space Between Us

Diane McLain Smith offers discerning analysis and real hope for how to heal the vicious partisanship that has overtaken America in her Remaking the Space Between Us: How Citizens Can work Together to Build a Future for All (2024). Hope is possible, even in the face of the divisiveness of the 2024 federal election. The fact is that 87% of the general population comprise the center of a more flexible and pragmatic citizenry. The other 13% are far out on either end of the political spectrum yet they exert an outsized voice in political discourse, and we give them undue attention in the media.

Smith's proposition goes back to two human potentialities that have served us well as we evolved - cooperation and competition. The problem is that these natural tendencies have very different outcomes. "At this state in our evolution, cooperation and empathy are much more likely to flourish within groups while competition, even hate, is much more likely to break out across groups" (p. 3). We are drawn together inside groups and driven apart between groups. "81 Percent of Americans believe the resulting divisions pose a greater threat to our future than foreign nations" (p. 8). The way out of this is deliberating to identify shared purpose that transcends different identities, life experiences, politics, and results in a new national identity coming out of a more interdependent way of being.

Many Americans, both conservative and liberal, recognize Donald Trump as a purveyor, if not the originator, of contemporary inter-group complaint. By catering to disaffected and disappointed citizens, billionaire Trump drew a significant number of middle and struggling class white citizens into his MAGA movement by making them feel that they were part of the golden toilet class. In Heather McGhee's analysis (The Sum of Us, 2021), give someone who is struggling someone else to look down on, and loyalty is not only secured but almost guaranteed. This strategy relies on a belief that "Some groups are innately better or lesser than others"... and "One group's gain must come at another's expense" (p. 28).

Imagining something better and committing to make it possible is the place to start remaking the space between us. Robert Putnam's Upswing (2020) cites times in U.S. history when citizens came together to create a more compassionate society and the question remains, are we on the cusp of a swing toward a new better self? Putnam's earlier work Bowling Alone, was released in a documentary titled Join or Die by Netflix. Covering Putnam's life work in advocating the importance of building bonds through voluntary associations, it reinforces the importance of remaking the space between us in order to renew human flourishing.

Remaking the space is dependent on embracing another evolutionary stage where cooperation across groups is fostered even when biases, values, and different life experiences tend to separate us. Smith recounts examples of such swings taking place - responsiveness to immigration in Lewiston, Maine, election reform such as fusion or ranked-choice voting, the compassionate response after the Tree of Life massacre in Pittsburgh, the Braver Angels debate initiate, and engaging communities in restorative storytelling. In these and other examples it only took one cross-group friend, which led to increased receptivity to ideas not considered before, and a commitment to pursue more.

Vaclav Havel's admonition that, "Perhaps hopelessness is the very soil that nourishes human hope" (p. 127) is an insight to employ for those who seek to remake the space between us. The headwinds we face include the decline of investigative journalism and migration to profit-driven national and social media, politicians who drive extreme positions to capture the headlines, disinformation and misinformation, and our own biases reinforced by social media echo chambers. The potential to turn these around is in activating the peripheral majority, encouraging them to engage others, and showing up where conflict is present or is likely to emerge. Navigation in conflict-ridden situations requires a commitment to 1) refuse to simplify and face complexity, 2) explore what happened and cast a wide net, 3) make sense of conflicting accounts, 4) explore options with others, 5) make a decision, explain the reasoning, and acknowledge other views, 6) be patient in waiting for a response, and 7) reflect on mistakes and continue to learn (pp. 159-163). From the Valedictory speech in 2022 of an Upstate NY high school senior, "Having hope is never stupid. No matter how buried it gets or how lost you feel, you must hold on to hope, keep it alive. We have to be greater than what we suffer" (p. 174).