64 Time April 6–13, 2020iT is almosT a Truism ThaT america is more divided Than ever.
In fact, it feels like our lack of consensus i s t he o nly t hing t here is a con-
sensus about.
But go ask someone who just got an earl y release from federal prison
about this idea of division. Go ask a coal miner, whose health care and
pension the government recently saved. Talk to families facing America’s
addiction c risis, a s p olicies b egin to shift to honor their struggle. Quietly,
below the radar, a new kind of bipartisanship is emerging. It tells a dif-
fe rent story about who we are as a country—and who we could become.
Bipartisanship today is different from the top-down bipartisanship
of the 1990s and early 2000s, which gave the term a bad odor. That old
approach —led by elite political professionals who ideologically were in
the mushy middle—gave us NAFTA, prisons everywhere a nd endless wars.
As a result, people of strong political conviction on both the right and
the left came to distrust anyone who talked about “compromise” and
“reaching across the aisle.” And the grassroots—from Black Lives Mat-
ter t o t he Tea Party, f rom Bernie Sandernistas t o t he MAGA-hat crowd—
revolted a gainst t he t raditional d ealmakers i n b oth p arties. The resulting
partisan d ivision h as c onvinced t he p ublic t hat t he p arties c an n ever c o-
operate on anything.
But that’s not true. Today’s bipartisanship is actually supported by
strong partisans, not by weak moderates. And it is driven from below:
not by timid insiders but by desperate outsiders whose communities have
been let down and left out for generations.
I discovered this bottom-up bipartisanship while working to fix our
criminal-justice system. In 2014, I helped launch #cut50—a biparti-
san campaign to cut crime and incarceration in half. My progressive co-
founders, Jessica Jackson and Matt Haney, and I had found strong conser-
vative allies, including Newt Gingrich and Koch Industries’ Mark Holden.
Through our work, which took me from South Central L.A. to the red parts
of Pennsylvania to West Virginia and back again, I learned key lessons,
working with “the other side.”
Firs t, t he most i mportant formula for bipartisan breakthroughs: pay
less a ttention t o t he p olitics a t t he t op a nd more a ttention t o t he p ain a t
the bottom. Pick tough issues that neither party has been able to solve.
Only t he b est p eople i n e ither p arty will t ouch t hose c auses. So you will
start out with great partners.
Second, separate battleground issues from common-ground issues.
Some issues are still hot and divisive. State your differences on those
issues —and then move on to areas where you can get something done.
For example, I work with the libertarians at Koch Industries on criminal-
justice reform while fighting them passionately on environmental policy.
At the end of a conference call, I sometimes tease my right-wing allies:
“O.K., now I gotta go beat you on all the other issues!” You can fiercely
oppose someone on a battleground issue and still work with them on a
common-ground issue.Third, don’t convert. Cooperate! Don’t try to
make other people adopt your worldview just to
work on a problem together. I ’ve found, for instance,
that progressives working to fix the prison system
are often motivated by empathy and a desire for ra-
cial justice. On the other hand, conservatives often
want fiscal restraint, less government overreach and
second-chance redemption for fallen sinners. We
have different reasons, but we want the same result.
Let that be good enough.
Fourth, start human, stay human. Respect that
whoever you are working with on the other side
has n oble i deals a nd values. Don’t make t hem b ear
the cross for the misdeeds of the worst elements
in t heir own party. They can’t control their yahoos
any more than you can control yours. And when dis-
agreements arise, don’t call people out, based on
your set of principles. If anything, try to call them
up to a higher commitment—inviting them to bet-
ter honor their own principles.Of cOurse, after Trump’s win, I felt squeezed by
a moral dilemma. As a progressive, I will always fight
policies I see as anti-immigrant, anti- environment,
etc. But a deeper question vexed me: Was resis-
tance enough? Would simply opposing Trump
solve the underlying social problems that predated
and helped fuel his rise? And how should I relate toHOW TO
MAKE CHANGE
Despite America’s sharp divisions, it’s still possible
to make bipartisan progress By Van JonesILLUSTRATION BY BEN WISEMAN FOR TIME
UWR.Jones.indd 64 3/24/20 10:45 PM