Depolarizing America, the local way

With the nation's capital in a stalemate, experiments in cooperating on local concerns are building social trust that can help bridge political rifts.

More than three weeks into the federal government shutdown, Democratic and Republican leaders still refuse to talk to each other about how to end it. That impasse is reflected in a recent poll that found 2 out of 3 Americans do not trust the U.S. political system to solve the country’s divisions.

Despite that popular view, many people are still finding ways to work together, exercising local agency to address pressing community issues. One example is the case of Three Rivers, Michigan , where Monitor staff writer Scott Baldauf found that shared concerns over contaminated water are helping dissolve partisan distrust. Similar “kitchen-ta