Exhausted No More

Political polarization has led to burned-out Americans, weary of civic discourse. The answer lies not in disengagement but, rather, positive engagement

- AMI SAGE and EMILY AMICK

With only months to go before a redo of the 2020 presidential election, which offers two candidates many Americans are apathetic about, finding ways to reinvigorate civic engagement is essential. The national conversation often emphasizes how polarized society is and how it is getting worse. The most extreme voices on opposite ends of the spectrum get the most attention. Yet-as authors Sami Sage, of Betches Media and the Morning Announcements podcast, and Emily Amick, creator of @Emilyin YourPhone and former counsel to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, discuss in their new book, DEMOCRACY IN RETROGRADE (Gallery Books)-most Americans are part of the exhausted majority. They are tired of the contentious discourse and would rather avoid the fray. But, according to Sage and Amick in this excerpt from their book, despair and opting out is not the answer. Instead, the way to move beyond polarization is to engage actively with the people and institutions around us and participate in our own democracy, thereby improving it from the inside out.

IN 2018, A GROUP OF RESEARCHers at an organization called More in Common launched a project called The Hidden Tribes of America to study polarization. They surveyed people about their core beliefs and basic values and, based on the data, identified seven distinct political groups in the U.S.The "tribes of America,"according to the report, are: progressive activists (8 percent), traditional liberals (11 percent), passive liberals (15 percent), politically disengaged (26percent), moderates (15 percent), traditional conservatives (19 percent) and devoted conservatives (6 percent). But their most critical finding was that four out of the seven groups, which total 67 percent of Americans, fit within a broader category that they titled the "Exhausted Majority" whose views fall somewhere in the middle.

Who Are 'The Exhausteds'?