CHAUTAUQUA–The mantra that Americans are more divided than ever is way past the point of being tiresome.

Have those repeating the mantra never heard of:

¯ The War of Independence and all that led to it?

¯ The War Between the States and all that led to it?

¯ What happened to Native Americans?

¯ What led to the civil-rights movement?

You, gentle reader, can add to the list.

Do any such questions mean we no longer have divisions?

No, yet they help put current divisions into perspective.

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The current divisions are made more challenging by–and, in some sense, are a product of–the coarsening of the culture.

Behavior that was once unthinkable has become commonplace.

Anyone who has, for example, taught school in recent decades needs no explanation of such coarsening.

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Whatever the cause of divisions, they can be good to bridge.

Which is one reason it was good of Chautauqua Institution to invite two political strategists–Democrat David Axelrod of the Obama administration, and Republican Karl Rove of the Bush 43 administration–to a joint discussion in the amphitheater on Aug. 18.

Such discussions are good not only for the participants but also for the two major political parties and, more importantly, for the public.

The success of such discussions partly depends on participants’ ability to engage in them on a stage and, in this case, with an audience numbering in the thousands.

That’s not a skill everyone has, which is fine. Axelrod and Rove, however, made it look easy.

One can’t help noticing such discussions, however formal or informal, would be good for others to have on a smaller scale, whether privately or publicly.

What’s helpful–not to mention fun–is when participants learn about each other, gain a greater understanding of others’ perspectives, and discover they have more in common than they thought.

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At the same time, it’s important not to gloss over fundamental differences.

It used to be that national Democrats had a substantial number of conservatives, while national Republicans had a substantial number of liberals.

It’s no secret that those substantial numbers have substantially diminished in recent decades as liberals have tended more to be Democrats and conservatives have tended more to be Republicans.

Partly as a result of that, the median national Democrat is left of where the median national Democrat used to be. And the median national Republican is right of where the median national Republican used to be.

Maybe such realignments are good. Maybe they’re not. Either way, they’re what has happened, with no indication of their reversing themselves anytime soon.

One upshot of such realignments is that “cross-pollination,” so to speak, of liberal and conservative ideas–which is valuable–is much less likely to occur now than previously in a group comprised solely of national Democrats or national Republicans.

Which is one reason that programs such as Chautauqua’s featuring Axelrod and Rove are important.

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And which is one reason that balance in overall programming–not in every single program–at cultural institutions such as Chautauqua is also important.

Speaking on that subject at Advocates for Balance at Chautauqua’s Aug. 21 event, ABC president Paul Anthony rightly noted the improvement at Chautauqua in this regard since ABC’s founding in 2018.

As examples, he cited three 2023 morning-amphitheater programs featuring conservatives Robert George, Mike Huckabee, and Rove.

It doesn’t diminish the improvement to observe that there’s room for more improvement.

For example, two of those three programs also featured liberals and a moderator. Although such programs are valuable, ABC’s president said Chautauqua needs more programs featuring speakers such as ABC’s, alone at the lectern and without a moderator.

Just as Chautauqua has many liberals alone at the lectern and without a moderator.

A nine-week Chautauqua season, with each week having five morning-amphitheater programs, has 45 such programs during the season.

“Three of 45 does not balance make,” ABC’s president said.

Still, three is progress.

Dr. Randy Elf’s Aug. 20, 2020, ABC presentation, on “How Political Speech Law Benefits Politicians and the Rich,” is at https://works.bepress.com/elf/21.

COPYRIGHT ç 2023 BY RANDY ELF