Christine Todd Whitman & Tom Daschle
Engaging Differences
April 9, 2020

Christine Todd Whitman, Former Republican Governor (NJ) and Former George W. Bush Cabinet Member, and Tom Daschle, Former Democratic Majority Leader of the Senate, share why engaging our differences help us to make better decisions.

Additional Resources

New Study: Americans Want More Constructive Politics, Believe Politicians And Social Media Benefit From Divisiveness While The Public Loses
New research from the inaugural Public Agenda/USA TODAY/Ipsos Hidden Common GroundTM survey reveals a significant number of Republicans and Democrats would consider crossing party lines for a more unifying candidate.

Nearly 75 percent of Americans, regardless of political affiliation, think there is more common ground among the public than the media and politicians portray, according to Divisiveness and Collaboration in American Public Life. This report draws from a Public Agenda/USA TODAY/Ipsos survey of 1,548 American adults conducted in October 2019.

Overall, the research shows agreement on the need to move beyond divisiveness. Most view the problem as less about people having too many irreconcilable differences and more about our nation’s inability to deal with those differences constructively. Encouragingly, there is common ground across party lines on specific approaches to move beyond this friction.