Dear Newsletter,
Is Braver Angels part of a conspiracy?
In short, no. But here’s why I state the question:
We live in an age of profound institutional distrust. That is a secret to no one, least of all we here at Braver Angels. But at Braver Angels, we find ourselves in the increasingly rare and important position of being a party trusted by individuals and organizations on both sides of the aisle to hold the space in which relationships of trust can be built. And, sometimes, where common ground can be found.
In principle, most Americans want this. But it is important to remember that institutional distrust is not so much about the difference between the parties as it is the difference between the people and the “elites”. Division between Republicans and Democrats may be worrisome. But unity between Republicans and Democrats can be more worrisome still, from that point of view.
In that context, it might be understandable that some would look at our work here at Braver Angels with suspicion. There have always been those on the left who have looked at the work we do and arrived at the conclusion that we exist to pacify liberals into legitimizing Trumpism. Or, intentionally or unintentionally, validating the idea that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump (a charge that rocked Braver Angels in 2021).
More recently however, Braver Angels has come under Twitter fire on the suspicion that, intentionally or unintentionally, we are being used as a way to launder a leftist revolutionary agenda into the conservative movement.
This is an argument made by an extremely popular X (formerly Twitter) user called “Data Republican”.
With nearly one million followers, Data Republican (often retweeted by Elon Musk) generally views the larger community of bridge building and pro-democracy organizations in this light. Several weeks ago her allegations became a subject of conversation among many, owing to claims she made that the speed with which Braver Angels produced an event responding to the death of Charlie Kirk was suspicious, eliciting from some of her followers and other observers the sense that she was suggesting some manner of complicity in that heinous crime.
After having interacted with her online, I strongly prefer to give Data Republican the benefit of the doubt that this is not what she meant. But this left a dark suspicion among many that warranted a response. With Maury Giles support, I tried to respond to this seeming insinuation, and the larger charges made alongside it, in a way that showed the many people observing on X that there are no shadows covering nefarious deeds here at Braver Angels.
I used a little bit of humor in doing so. But in the maelstrom of social media, with a person boasting an army of followers convinced of our complicity in something sinister, I tried to engage her and her followers in the Braver Angels Way.
Initially, my replies were overwhelmed by social media accounts hurling insults, attempting intimidation, accusing me of communism (not something I often get as a conservative), and plenty worse and plenty more. In fact, those replies are still coming to me in this very moment.
Not the most pleasant thing.
As all of us know, there is almost no bottom to the hostility and contempt produced by discourse online, especially in the more conspiratorial corners of the internet. And there were certainly those who counseled me to expect no good faith from a “conspiracy theorist” bent on manipulating the truth.
But one does not have to expect good faith to offer it. And I, alongside other Braver Angels leaders, members and volunteers who joined the conversation despite the storm of hostility, generally did our best to demonstrate that.
(Here I want to give special recognition to the courageous graciousness of the red co-chair of the Lower Susquehana, Pennsylvania Alliance Tom Cook; blue co-chair of the Braver Angels Alliance of the Sandhills, North Carolina’s Lisa Wells; and red co-chair of the Illinois Zoom Alliance Michelle Zier, who stood up for our work in the Braver Angels spirit despite the online vitriol.)
When ultimately Data Republican responded however, I was pleased to see that she did in fact respond with decency.
She stated “this thread is not about [Braver Angels’] members. Many are sincere and I thank [Wilk Wilkinson and John Wood Jr.] for communicating with me.”
She would clarify (in contrast to what I earlier pointed out seemed to be an insinuation that we had some complicity in the death of Charlie Kirk) that what she was offering was a criticism of our organization as led by a non-profit industrial complex steeped in leftwing radicalism.
Hardly flattering, and far from true. But a charge leveled with respect for our people that I and others were happy to engage.
Some have observed that this individual is selling a book and have claimed she is motivated to launder falsehoods about various persons and organizations in an effort to make money. I prefer however to believe that Data Republican suspicions are sincere. Yet even if they were not, the suspicions of her followers and many who look at organizations and institutions at every level of society as compromised and agenda driven are certainly sincere.
Left and rightwing forces in America have given us ample reason to distrust their deeds and motivations when it comes to serving the American people. Given that environment, why would we automatically be spared such suspicion at Braver Angels?
For Data Republican, our willingness to work alongside progressive networks and organizations who certainly oppose President Trump shows that we must share (or are being used by) their agenda. Of course, my response is that we also work alongside conservative organizations whose leaders and members support the president, and/or support conservative causes. In other contexts, that would mark us as suspect to many liberals as it has in the past and likely will in the future.
In an age of suspicion, our work is to expand the realm of trust between Americans. That requires us to be careful stewards of our credibility in a harsh environment so Americans left, right and center may retain their trust in us, and give their trust to us. And that in turn requires a willingness on our part to brave even the most cynical interpretations of our work, and that of our partners, in a spirit of courageous citizenship–that one day we may make even our fiercest critics into our friends.
The wisdom of Abraham Lincoln still holds: “we are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break the bonds of our affection.”
Affection is a tall order sometimes. But goodwill in spite of our differences is something we can manage. If we can do that, we will be well on our way towards helping the American people remain or become friends with one another.
-John Randolph Wood Jr., National Ambassador, Braver Angels
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