This Group Has $100 Million And a Big Goal: To Fix America

This Group Has $100 Million And a Big Goal: To Fix America

“In February 2020, in the midst of a vitriolic presidential election, an idealistic group of donors from across the ideological spectrum met to plan an ambitious new project,” writes Farah Stockman in the New York Times. “They called themselves the New Pluralists and pledged to spend a whopping $100 million over the next decade to fight polarization by funding face-to-face interactions among Americans across political, racial and religious divides. Fixing what is broken in American democracy requires more than changing voter ID laws or the shape of our congressional districts, they argued. It requires forging deep personal connections that will change hearts and minds and ultimately American culture itself.”

Stockman’s piece traces the history of the New Pluralists, which sprang from the concept of “cultural pluralism,” created in the early 1900s by the Jewish philosopher Horace Kallen, and explores the path forward for this ambitious initiative.