How do we stop talking past each other and engage in productive dialogue to build a common ground of understanding?
By Mike Green
This month, the CGC Journal offers a practical approach to bridging persistent divides in America across major fault lines:
- Politics
- Race
- Economics
- Religion
There may be no other singular movement that encapsulates the four issues above comparable to the Make America Great Again (MAGA) campaign, which ushered Donald Trump into the presidency in 2016, increased his support in a losing effort in 2020, and propelled him back into the White House again in the 2024 election.
The MAGA movement in America, and around the world, invokes emotional expressions and behaviors from people on both sides. It may be the single most divisive political campaign in the 21st century. It may arguably be the most divisive in American history since the Civil War.
MAGA is now a shorthand moniker for tens of millions of Americans to identify and distinguish themselves with pride, while many Americans who oppose the MAGA movement have expressed visceral revulsion when discussing it. This division uniquely encapsulates the four major issues that Americans have trouble discussing within families, friendships, and even marriages: politics, race, economics, and religion. MAGA cannot be properly examined without understanding how it encapsulates all four of these issues.
MAGA SUPPORTERS
MAGA supporters show their loyalty to Donald Trump in myriad ways, from brandishing branded merchandise, flags, and other symbols of their patriotism and Trump loyalty, to spending their time at rallies and spending money in donations to MAGA causes and candidates. Ironically, the MAGA movement covers a spectrum ranging from deeply devout White Christian evangelicals to deeply devout white supremacist nationalists and violent vigilantes. While there exists a small percentage of nonwhite Americans who support MAGA, the movement is overwhelmingly White. The average support for Trump’s MAGA movement over the last three presidential campaigns (2016, 2020, 2024) resulted in a majority of White men (60%) and a majority of White women voters (53% – largest voting bloc in America) supporting Trump. His solid base of support is comprised of 85% White Christian conservative evangelicals.
Notably no majority of any nonwhite voting group supported Trump and his MAGA campaign in any election.
MAGA OPPONENTS
On the flip side, MAGA opponents are comprised of a collective group of diverse populations. A minority of White voters are the most complicated among them, with a range of ideological perspectives and political affiliations. Black voters are the most vocal, with Black women leading the MAGA opposition. Black women are also the largest nonwhite voting bloc and have a consistent voting record against MAGA in all three elections with Trump at the top of the ticket, averaging more than 90% against him. While the majority of all nonwhite demographic voting groups oppose Trump and MAGA, Black women are by far the leaders. They are leading in elected seats, in business ownership, in academia, in activism and making their voices heard above the cacophony of chaos. When Vice President Kamala Harris tossed her hat into the ring, Black women were the first to express their support.
WOMEN RACIALLY DIVIDED
The intrinsic divide in America can be simplified to the two demographic voting blocs on either side of the MAGA movement:
- Most White Christian women (largest voting bloc) support MAGA and Trump.
- Most Black Christian women (largest nonwhite voting bloc) oppose MAGA and Trump.
Women are often the primary decisionmakers in their homes. In most homes, women purchase the groceries, with a concern about economics. They are primary caregivers for children, and concerned about healthcare and education. Women represent an overwhelming majority of teachers in schools. Women are an overwhelming majority of DEI leaders, with White women occupying a significant majority of DEI positions.
The bottom line is that Trump and MAGA are the dominant power in America because most White women support the MAGA movement, much to the chagrin of 90% of Black women. Given their shared concerns about family, children, health, and the economy, what separates most White and Black women from engaging in productive dialogue over kitchen table issues they collectively care about?
CHRISTIANS HOPELESSLY DIVIDED?
Are we a hopelessly divided nation? While one side is cheering and enjoying a cavalcade of catastrophic assaults on the welfare of workers, families, and communities each week by the Trump administration, those adversely impacted by a blitzkrieg of political bombardments are fearful of the unknown future, which becomes more confusing and unknowable with each executive order.
And while White Christian evangelicals pray for a restoration of the “great country” they remember from the 20th century, Black Christians and other nonwhite populations of Christian and other religious beliefs are praying for a halt to the destruction of incremental progress that took generations of human sacrifice to achieve.
Both sides want something. Both sides are embroiled in a political battle fueled by economic and religious ideology, plus the ever-present racial dynamics rooted in the founding of the nation and persistent in the struggle over the evolution of America ever since.
LIES, AND DAMNED LIES
Today, Americans continue to talk past one another daily, ignoring the elephant in the room: false narratives. We struggle with productive dialogue because of the irony inherent in the massive MAGA movement animating American discourse today: it is based on false narratives, propaganda, lies and disingenuousness. MAGA supporters are simply are not having a discussion over factual truth.
We witnessed an example of it on March 4 during a speech by President Trump to a joint session of Congress. In a divided Congress, the Democrats engaged in varying array of protests while the MAGA Republicans engaged in a display of apparent obsequious ovations in support of a litany of blatantly statements made by Trump. CNN reported:
“By the standard of any politician in Washington DC who is not Donald Trump, that was still an extremely dishonest speech.” CNN’s fact-checker Daniel Dale said, “I counted at least 13 flat false claims … and that is a preliminary count that doesn’t include a whole bunch of misleading or uncorroborated claims.”
More fact-checkers weighed in from across the mainstream national media: Politifact/PBS, CNN, NYT, NPR, AP, NBC. I also sought out fact-checking from conservative media but could not find any. Ironically, the Fox 5 New York channel offered a misleading headline that included the term “fact check” while there was no actual fact-checking in the article. Check for yourself: “Trump’s speech to Congress: Key takeaways, moments, fact check, polls.”
So, what can we do?
WHAT I CAN DO
First, ask yourself, “Do I care?” If you do care about the state of our national discourse, then keep in mind that every member of Congress that applauded Trump represented a population of people. Some of those constituents live where you live. If Congress cannot find a common ground of understanding to bridge the deep divide in discourse, then the effort must begin where you live. And it must begin with you. After all, you cannot expect your representative to exhibit behavior that you are unwilling to engage in yourself.
The same dynamic we witnessed in Congress exists in our own community, regardless of where we live. There are MAGA supporters cheering on every executive order in your city or town, and MAGA opponents protesting.
Certainly, we are witnessing many MAGA supporters finding themselves in the bullseye of overtly obstinate and dispassionate dismissals of workers, and cuts to contracts and funds by the Trump administration. But such temporary blowback by unhappy Republican constituents will not be sustained and result in any electoral damage. Data don’t lie. Trump has maintained his solid base of support for a decade, despite tens of thousands of documented lies, threats and even direct attacks upon prominent leaders in the Republican Party who dared to disagree with him. He has bullied, belittled, and berated those who even mildly disagreed with him or offered criticism. And he has transformed many into loyalists. Those who Trump could not transform, were attacked by his “army of conservatives.”
The answer is not in idly hoping that Trump will go too far. He has gone so far past the threshold of “too far” that it has lost any meaning. No one knows what “too far” means, because Trump has done exponentially more than any elected leader before him who suffered a loss of support and the seat of power to which they were entrusted. Trump knows he is safe doing whatever he desires, which the Supreme Court underscored in a landmark ruling.
The tactic used to scare Americans into opposing MAGA, based on the idea that Trump will destroy democracy and transform American into an authoritarian state, was evidently a failed fear campaign. The split between pro-democracy and authoritarianism broke across racial fault lines. While the majority of all nonwhite populations opposed MAGA, a majority of both White men and White women embraced Trump. Trump’s MAGA movement resonated with them because it is based upon a vision of an America that most White Christian voters identify with, regardless of the methods by which it is achieved. But therein lies the opportunity. The battle is within the Christian church … which presumably loves truth. Christians are commanded to reconcile with those who have any charge against them before they come to the alter of God their appeals. Could this be a door of opportunity?
ENGAGING IN CONVERSATION
The conditions in society that White Christian conservative Americans desire for the whole population remains an unanswered question. Rather than overtly oppose MAGA supporters, we could instead become curious about what they want. We could sincerely inquire about what they fear. We could express genuine curiosity to gain a complete understanding of what a “Great America” was through their eyes, which compels them to seek to restore today’s America to the past conditions during which they believe America was doing great.
Elections featuring Trump have revealed that most White Christian Americans want to Make America Great Again … for them. And while the conditions they desire for themselves had adverse impact upon many others, it is a worthwhile exercise to conduct a process of critical inquiry with MAGA supporters in our spheres of influence to try and fully understand what they believe and why.
By engaging MAGA supporters in genuine discourse, we can ask questions that deepen our understanding of where they obtain sources they trust, and the path(s) they took to arrive at the destination of MAGA supporter. Such an exploration helps us identify sources they trust, which produce and reinforce false narratives. I’m not suggesting to engage in debate. Think of the process as a journalist approaches a story. They seek to learn what, when, why, how and who. They ask probing questions to gain a more in-depth understanding of the point of view of the interviewee without sharing their own. We can do the same. Without disputing or refuting any information heard, engaging in a process of critical inquiry can help MAGA supporters with their own self-reflective journey to examine what they believe and why they believe it.
BEING MINDFUL
We must remember that we all inherited a society that none of us created. No blame. No shame. But we also inherited a responsibility for the society we pass to future generations. MAGA supporters appear aligned in their vision of a future America based upon their belief in a great America that once existed in the 20th century … or 19th century. Identifying those conditions that they seek to restore from the past can not only help us understand what MAGA supporters truly want, but it may also open a productive dialogue about how MAGA supporters perceive the roles of the rest of America’s population, which seeks a different future and envisions a more diverse, equitable and Inclusive America for a 21st century multiracial, multicultural society.
The challenge in having such discussions is that we must be mindful to engage in the process with several tools:
- Express genuine curiosity
- Utilize a critical inquiry process
- Utilize active listening techniques
- Seek to understand, not argue, dispute nor refute
NOTE: Success in a productive dialogue is measured by our ability to express the view of someone with whom we disagree, with 100% accuracy (determined by them). We do not have to agree. Our goal is understanding, not necessarily agreement.
The secret to this process of critical inquiry is that we’re able to ask probing questions that perhaps have been unexplored, and may be questions that a MAGA supporter have not considered before. Our role in engaging in a process of critical inquiry is not to answer the questions, but rather to present them out of curiosity toward understanding the workings of the MAGA mind.
If the MAGA supporters reciprocate our curiosity, they may engage in their own personal investigation to discover answers to the questions presented and perhaps re-engage in the conversation later. Remember, no single conversation can be expected to produce such a paradigm shift that MAGA supporters will immediately abandon their position and beliefs that are tied to their identity. Even if you experience some critique of Trump by a MAGA supporter, it should be noted that many past Trump critics have become highly loyal to Trump today.
TRUTH CAN MOVE THE NEEDLE
If we hope to move the needle of MAGA support in a direction that diminishes his support, it will not happen by hope. It will not happen by anything Trump does directly or indirectly to his constituents. It will be catalyzed by exposing MAGA supporters to truth. Remember that 85% of White evangelicals serve as MAGA loyalists and Trump’s base of support. They all proclaim a love for Christ and truth.
The truth has a power all its own to transform hearts and minds. All we need to do is share it. And in the case of a series of conversations with MAGA supporters, using critical inquiry tools, the goal is to discover what they believe, the sources of their information and why they believe what they share.
Through this process of sincere curiosity toward understanding, a door of access may open. And through that door, as long as it remains open, a dialogue can develop. And through that dialogue, a process of accompanying a MAGA supporter along a journey of self-reflection and expanded awareness of new knowledge can occur … if they express an interest in doing their own investigative work to determine whether the sources of their believed knowledge are credible.
LEARNING TOGETHER
As co-learners, we can engage MAGA supporters and walk with them on a journey of self-discovery and a better understanding of their own identify. We can also learn more about what they believe and why. And we can share with them connected dots between the dynamics in society today to past revered eras of America through an informed lens of historical context.
This lens is critical to connecting the dots between the America we have today, the presumed “Great America” of 18th, 19th and 20th century lore, and the envisioned 21st century future in which MAGA loyalists believe Trump will Make America Great Again.
#MAGA #PoliticalDivide #AmericanDream
