Can the left and right come together to restore the common good?

Last Friday, I visited Salt Lake City to kick off a really exciting new initiative I’ve begun with an unlikely partner, Utah’s Republican Governor Spencer Cox. Our effort is called “Restoring the Common Good”, and we are convening discussion groups around the country to investigate whether there is an appetite on the right and left for people to join together and try to solve the crisis of meaning, purpose and connection that is causing so many Americans to report feeling epidemic levels of anxiety and unhappiness.

Yes, the majority of Americans are living content, fulfilling lives. We don’t mean to overstate the problem. But we do all feel there is something not right with what’s going on in America today – we are witnessing spiraling levels of addiction, self-harm, political extremism, and violence. More Americans report being unhappy with their lives than any time in recent memory, even with record low unemployment and a growing economy.

Governor Cox and I started talking about a year ago about our belief that this crisis of disaffection and discontent is affecting people on both the political left and right, as well as people with no political affiliation. We wondered whether too much of our national political conversation is centered on well-worn rigid fights, like health care, abortion, immigration and guns. We guessed that there could be a hidden alignment between right and left on policies to  help the millions of Americans who are feeling out of control of their economic lives, isolated and alone, or disconnected from their community.

So we each asked a handful of thought leaders on both the right and left – people who have spent their careers thinking about what makes a good, fulfilling life and what role the government should play in that endeavor – to join us for a series of national conversations. We kicked off the initiative at Governor Cox’s home in Salt Lake City with a group of local community leaders. 

The meeting wildly exceeded my expectations. We focused on three main areas of potential bipartisan work, and I want to explain each of them to you.

First, we talked about the trouble people are having today finding friendship, companionship and community. Too many people report leading isolated, disconnected lives – the problem, as we all know, is especially acute amongst children. The discussion centered around the appropriate role of government to help attack this trend toward more social isolation. The ideas ranged from more support for public spaces, like community pools and parks, to help for institutions, like churches and social clubs, that bring people together.

Second, we talked about how to reinvigorate the value people place on the common good. Studies show that happiness is more tied to helping others than to receiving help, but today we live in such a me-first culture that many people don’t think about the ways they can help their neighbors. The primary idea we discussed was expanding public service programs – like AmeriCorps or the Peace Corps at the national level – and how they can help connect people with a sense of purpose and more broadly infuse a value of serving others back into our public life. One caution that several participants raised was the need for local communities to take the lead on designing service programs and the danger of relying on a national, one-size-fits-all model.

Third, we all agreed that many new technologies, most significantly social media, is degrading our connection to each other and our sense of community. “Online existence is comfortable,” said one participant, “but rarely fulfilling.” Too many kids are learning the behaviors of withdrawal, as their smartphones and addictive social media apps draw them away from in person contact with peers. We agreed that we need to keep up the bipartisan momentum to regulate social media.

Friday’s conversation covered just the tip of the iceberg. As we broke up after two energizing hours of discussion, Governor Cox and I agreed that the next session should focus more on the elements of happiness that are connected to economic well-being. A room full of conservatives and progressives is certainly going to have plenty of disagreement on economic issues, but both Cox and I agree that the market fundamentalism of the last quarter century has not benefited all Americans. There is room for markets to care more about the common good, and (this is just me talking) government to help make sure markets operate for the well-being of all Americans, rather than just a select few. .

Our next two sessions will be in Washington D.C. and Nashville, Tennessee, and everyone left our first session eager to keep the dialogue going. In the end, we hope to present our findings on the sources of American anxiety and unhappiness, and to produce some policy ideas for where elements of the right and left can join together to help Americans have easier access to what is commonly referred to as “the good life.”

The big, high profile fights between right and left are important. I won’t ever back down from fighting for reproductive freedom or tighter gun laws or a compassionate immigration system. But those battles potentially mask a set of lower profile but still vital issues where Republicans and Democrats can find agreement and have an enormous impact in people’s ability to find meaning and purpose in their lives. And I think that’s worth exploring.