Promoting Dialogue Across Party Lines

While many across the state gathered for presidential debate parties Tuesday night, a group of people in Madison held a pre-debate party to hear opposing views on immigration reform from two immigrants.

The immigration debate at a restaurant on the shores of Lake Mendota was part of a series of debates sponsored by the group Reach Out Wisconsin. For the past year each month organizers have invited people of opposing viewpoints to speak on controversial issues to an audience that includes people from both sides of the political divide. The goal is to promote civil dialogue. Todd Osborne is a Tea Party organizer he says he welcomes the opportunity rub shoulders and viewpoints with liberals, “Usually when I’m talking politics I’m preaching to the choir, I’m talking to people that have my own views. Outside of this group I don’t get much liberalism.”

At another table, Karen McKim, a self-professed progressive says she comes to these gatherings because she believes literally that a democracy is governed by its citizens who are like a board of directors, “None of us would think for a moment about serving on a board of directors without talking to the other members of the board. We get so little chance to do that. This is where we come to practice democracy, practice it, get better at it.”

But for this group of citizens getting better at democracy doesn’t mean converting or defeating people with opposing views.

The two Guatemalan immigrants who laid out diametrically opposing views for the group Tuesday night couldn’t even agree on whether illegal or undocumented was the proper term for the millions of immigrants their proposed reforms would affect. But that’s ok because for the reach out Wisconsin group friendly dialogue, not agreement is the goal.