Let’s Discover Common Ground

Turn on the news or open your phone and America looks furious — split down the middle, neighbor against neighbor. Before you accept that picture, look at who profits from it.

Conflict pays. Broadcasters sell advertising by promoting controversy. Outrage gets more clicks. A politician who names an enemy builds a following faster than one who builds a coalition. Nobody in that chain gets paid to tell you how much you and your neighbor agree.

And yet you do agree. Year after year, independent polling finds large majorities of Americans — Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike — supporting reforms such as:

• An end to stock trading by members of Congress
• Term limits for Congress
• Preventing big private and corporate money from influencing politics
• Creating fair voting districts
• Open primaries for all voters
• Strong funding for public schools
• Control of health care costs
• Real limits on AI development, and on who profits from AI and data centers

But our elected officials do not act on these opportunities — and not because we cannot agree. We already do. Reform stalls because agreement among voters is not what moves legislation. A measure with 85% support can sit for years without reaching a vote, and politicians who block the measure do not pay a price. Our political incentives do not reward cooperation and problem-solving among legislators.

The essays below identify several areas of broad agreement among Americans. They also show how our political system, the modern news business, and social media promote conflict and ignore that agreement — and the essays set out reforms and actions that will get us on a better path.