Amid the rubble, shoots of democratic renewal

Third, like antibodies to authoritarian infection, an ecosystem is emerging to help the nation address the toxic polarization and dysfunctional public discourse that has been dividing and conquering the people and strangling the democratic process. This includes the 500-plus organizations in the ListenFirst Coalition; the growing Solutions Journalism Network; applied research outfits like the nonpartisan More in Common, Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute and Johns Hopkins’ Agora Institute; and a budding Tech for Social Cohesion coalition. The body politic is far from healthy but some treatment has begun.