Depolarizing America: Building Consensus Step-by-Step: Rob Fersh and Kelly Johnston

Let's Find Common Ground

USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future

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5 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2021

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kelly Johnston and Rob Fersh disagree strongly on many issues and voted differently in the 2020 election. But they are friends and wrote recently that they "agree on major steps that must be taken for the nation to heed President-elect Biden’s welcome call for us to come together." Both believe that constructive steps must be taken to help build trust among Democrats and Republicans, despite deep polarization and a firm resistance to bipartisanship from both ends of the political spectrum. They encourage open dialogue between sectors and interest groups whose views diverge in an effort to deal with divisive political discourse. Kelly Johnston is a committed Republican and a former Secretary of the U.S. Senate. Rob Fersh founded Convergence Center for Policy Resolution, and previously worked for Democrats on the staffs of three congressional committees. Both are guests on "Let's Find Common Ground". They discuss bridge-building and why this work is so urgently needed now in an era of political gridlock. Click on bonus audio as Rob describes the process at Convergence.

Transcript

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0:00.0	How do we get people who disagree, who feel very strongly about their stands on issues into
0:05.3	the same room? Not only that, how can they build bridges together and seek consensus?
0:11.3	The answer may not be about compromise.
0:20.4	This is Let's Find Common Ground. I'm Ashley Melntite.
0:24.6	And I'm Richard Davies. Kelly Johnston and Rob Fersh first met more than 25 years ago
0:30.9	as political opponents. Today they still disagree on politics but are good friends who work together
0:38.0	to try and build consensus. Kelly is a committed Republican who voted for Donald Trump.
0:43.9	He's a former secretary of the US Senate and worked on more than 30 Republican congressional
0:49.2	campaigns. Later in his career, Kelly was a senior executive in the food industry.
0:54.7	And Rob Fersh worked as a democratic staff member on three congressional committees
0:59.9	before founding Convergent Centre for Policy Resolution.
1:03.8	In our interview, we'll learn more about how Convergence builds trust among people on both sides
1:09.6	of the political divide. Rob Fersh, Kelly Johnston, you say that you agree on almost nothing,
1:16.6	except how to solve problems across the political divide. How did you start working together,
1:22.5	Kelly, maybe you could kick off? Sure. Well, it actually goes back to 1995. And I was in a role,
1:28.0	then, as the staff director for the Senate Republican Policy Committee, just after the 94
1:34.0	elections, which should of course, the Republicans gain control of the House for the first time
1:38.1	in 40 years and had regained control of the Senate after a few years. I had a call one day in
1:43.3	spring of that year. First, this was also the Newt Gingrich contract with America agenda
1:48.3	would be pushed through the House. They wasn't entirely embraced by Senate Republicans. And so there's
1:54.0	a tiny bit of friction. But one day, I get a call from my counterpart, the staff director
1:59.0	for the House Republican Conference called me up and said, Kelly, I did a big favor. I'm supposed
	...

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