Bill Doherty

Bridging the Political Divide

Can any of our institutions thrive if we don’t overcome our tribalism?

The co-founder of Braver Angels discusses efforts to bring red and blue people together to find common ground for the betterment of us all. The conversation explores political polarization through the lens of family therapy, the long decline of social trust, social media’s role as an accelerant, the rural-urban divide, faith communities, and how Braver Angels works to change civic culture.

An interview in the series: “Restoring Trust in Our Minnesota Institutions”

May 28, 2026

Panelists: Paul Ostrow, Ipshita Tiwari, Chloe Zhao, Todd Otis, Tom Horner

Summary

Bill Doherty draws on decades of family therapy work to argue that our political crisis is, at its core, a relationship crisis. Just as couples in conflict tend to locate all the blame in the other person, Americans have fallen into a pattern where each side is convinced the other is entirely responsible for our divisions. Real progress, Doherty says, only begins when both sides acknowledge their own role in the problem.

Background

Doherty is professor emeritus of family social science at the University of Minnesota and heads the Doherty Relationship Institute. He is the co-founder of Braver Angels, a national organization that brings Republicans and Democrats together in structured workshops to reduce political polarization. Braver Angels has been active for nine years and counts Minnesota among its most engaged states, with more members per capita than anywhere else in the country. All Minnesota leadership, and Doherty himself, serve as volunteers.

Discussion

"We’re all in this state of Minnesota together. Half of us can't move to Canada. There are no unilaterally-created solutions. We're going to have to figure out a way to get along and run this state together." – Bill Doherty

What does family therapy tell us about political polarization?
Doherty says the analogy is instructive but not perfect. Families are interdependent: They share a history; they need each other; and they can't simply walk away. The same is true of a state or a country. In couples therapy, real change doesn't begin until both partners stop pointing fingers and acknowledge that each has contributed to their common problems. Our political culture, he argues, hasn't reached that point yet.

Why has trust in our institutions collapsed?
Polarization hasn't stayed in the realm of politics; it has invaded nearly every institution. We now look at judges and ask who appointed them. We questioned public health authorities during the Covid pandemic. Libraries have become ideological battlegrounds. When institutions are seen through a partisan lens, they lose the broad legitimacy they need to function.

Social trust has been declining for a long time.
Doherty points to Robert Putnam's landmark book “Bowling Alone” as documentation of a decades-long decline in civic participation, like in Rotary Clubs, Parent Teacher Associations, and neighborhood organizations that once put people of different backgrounds in the same room. Without those contacts, we form narrower identity groups, and trust erodes. Each generation since World War II has come of age less trusting than the one before. “We have a long decline in how much people believe that other people in their community can be relied upon to do the right thing,” Doherty says. “Our challenges with our institutions and polarization are thoroughly connected to the way in which we pull apart from one another and don’t trust one another.”

What role has social media played?
Social media didn't create polarization, but it has acted as a powerful accelerant. It has sorted people into separate information universes, made it easy to spread conspiracy theories with minimal effort, and rewarded hostility over civility. People say things online they would never say face-to-face. Doherty believes we can change our norms around technology, just as social norms around cigarette smoking shifted dramatically over his lifetime — but it will take deliberate collective effort.

How do we get lawmakers to, first, agree on what the problems are, so we can then focus on solutions?
Doherty says elected officials don’t interact with each other much on a personal level, and they exaggerate values differences. “We, the people, have to take some responsibility for the political divide when we want our elected officials to be gladiators,” he says. He describes his workshop with Congress's bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus — 30 Republicans and 30 Democrats — and how personal storytelling, not policy debate, is what humanizes the other side. Face-to-face discussion reveals common values which then can lead to policy solutions.

What drove the rural-urban divide?
Doherty notes that the sharp geographic sorting we see today didn't really take hold until the 1990s. Globalization hollowed out rural economies and manufacturing. Rural young people left for cities, and those who stayed developed a deep sense of being economically left behind and culturally disrespected by metropolitan elites. That resentment became political identity.

Can faith communities help?
They should be natural allies for reconciliation work, Doherty says, but many congregations have become sorted politically; people now choose a house of worship based on politics as much as theology. Braver Angels has a faith caucus and is developing new training for Minnesota clergy who are struggling to hold politically mixed congregations together.

What is Braver Angels' theory of change?
Braver Angels is not trying to make anyone a centrist. The goal is to change attitudes toward people, not positions on issues. One of its most effective workshops, "Depolarizing Within," teaches participants how to speak up constructively when people on their own side demonize the other, a harder and arguably more important skill than talking across the aisle. Change spreads through communities one conversation at a time.

Final thoughts

Doherty closed with a story of hope: a leader of the country's largest conservative immigration advocacy organization, tired of three decades of gridlock, approached Braver Angels to find a liberal counterpart willing to look for common ground. That discreet meeting has grown to 16 organizations, conservative and liberal, meeting quarterly, working toward a shared immigration proposal they plan to bring to Congress together. Doherty says, "I believe that's going to happen."