I participated in the Braver Angels National Debate on Red-Blue speaking AGAINST the resolution. Following is the Debate Resolution and my full 4-minute argument.
Resolved: The Red/Blue dichotomy is the best way to ensure viewpoint diversity at Braver Angels.
Thank you Madam Chair,
I would like to begin with a question.
Why are we here?
Why are we showing up— late on a weeknight —to do this work?
Is it because we are Red? Or because we are Blue?
Or is it because we are Americans… who love this country enough to do something darn difficult?
Because we are patriots – in the deeper sense. The kind that asks something of us –
To look at our own confirmation bias.To listen past what triggers us. To stay in the room when it would be much easier to walk away.
We are here because something matters more to us than our own identity.
And that “something” is not Red. It is not Blue.
It is America.
And yet, the dominant frame we use is Red and Blue – not the best way to ensure viewpoint diversity nor courageous citizenship at Braver Angels.
Let me be clear. Those colors have served us well. They give us clarity, immediacy and legitimacy at all levels. They echo the colors of our flag!
But they are also the colors of our two major political parties – unfortunately. So they have come to define us in ways that are constricting. They pull us into binary thinking—two camps, fixed and opposed, with contempt for each other.
That is a kind of quiet tyranny.
A narrowing of identity. A shrinking of imagination.
And it excludes people.
Because we know the majority of Americans no longer see themselves in either camp.They feel politically homeless – or simply exhausted.
And when our frame is only Red versus Blue, those people may never walk through our doors, I know many who are already here who grit their teeth and bear the binary characterization, the pigeonholing – as a speaker before me said.
So what if we expanded the frame?
Not by abandoning Red and Blue – I agree with those who say we do at our own peril for it is the foundation of all we do – but by building on them.
What if we additionally named something already present among us?
What if we named PURPLE?
Not as compromise.
But as independence.
Because if we’re honest, many of us are already some shade of Purple. But in not naming it, we may be overlooking one of our greatest strengths.
Purple does something Red and Blue alone cannot.
If Red and Blue name the divide — Purple names our freedom from it.
It names an independent spirit.
As we approach 250 years of American independence, that idea matters.
We can tell a different story:
That our Red/Blue divide has confined us – and that we, as Braver Angels, are choosing something braver. To cross that divide. To meet as citizens first – courageous citizens.
To reclaim our AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.
I understand not everyone will be drawn to this. But I am afraid that if we try to be everything to everyone, we risk meaning nothing to most. I am all for expanding our language to make room for the Skeptic Red – we must do that regardless of any old or new framing.
But I am also reminded of the words by Alexander Hamilton that I saw inscribed in the Signer’s Hall at The Constitution Center in Philadelphia where I was last month. “Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments”.
Madam Chair, our work asks something of people – humility, reflection, a willingness to compromise, a trust in moderation. For what else is our Common Ground Workshop, Citizens Commission on Immigration, meeting with the Problems Solver’s Caucus?
So let us be clear about who we are calling in: Those willing to practice courageous citizenship.
For them, Purple is not compromise.
It is aspiration. It invites us into a larger civic identity as Americans first.
So lets Keep Red.
And lets Keep Blue.
But name what lives between – and beyond them.
Because we are not here simply as Reds or Blues. We are here as Americans – courageous citizens and independent thinkers.
And it is that spirit of liberty, of independence – Purple – that can carry our work forward.
Thank you.
Swati Srivastava is an immigrant and a multi award-winning writer, director, and voiceover artist. A filmmaker & storyteller, Swati turns ideas into experience. She is Co-Chair of the Braver Angels Long Island Alliance and a trained facilitator moderating conversations that bring people together across their political divides. Swati is also an environmentalist and lives in a Net Zero Energy home with her husband. She can be reached via Linkedin and swati@TiredAndBeatup.com