Getting to Know Your Neighbors Can Save Democracy

Americans have forgotten how to be good neighbors. Political polarization has reached the point where people see those with opposing viewpoints not just as misguided, but as existential threats . We have cut off family members over voting choices and refuse to date across party lines. We increasingly inhabit separate online and media-dictated realities with different facts and different histories, making collective problem-solving nearly impossible.

But the fractures run even deeper than our politics. Half of Americans report “seldom” or “never” talking to someone in their community they do not know well. Fewer than half speak with a neighbor they do not know well even a few times per year. We are spending more time at home and less time in communal activities than any previous