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			The Art of Political Listening http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1026/p11s01-comv.html Did “the red-blue split” reach into your home office or social circle? If it did, how were relationships there affected? The “climate”? You? Were measures taken to combat potentially negative consequences? If so, what was effective? The author notes that “a terrorist strike threw the nation into a solidarity of the heart” and asks how Americans can be so bitterly divided three years later. Can you think of a metaphor that captures what you felt like after 9/11 and another that captures how you felt after the 2004 election? How do you understand the shift (if one occurred)? What shifts do we need to foster now? When it comes to bridging political gulfs, “half the battle is willingness to accept that the other guy's motives are good.” Using the author’s metaphor, how close are you to winning this half of the battle as far as the “other guys” involved in the 2004 elections are concerned? What assumptions may stand in the way of your making further progress? How could you reality test your assumptions and convictions about who “they” are? The author of this piece suggests that everyone “have a doughnut with a neighbor of the opposite political stripe and try, just try, to identify common goals on public issues, without rancor.” How could you make that happen for your and your neighbors? What stops you? If you already are doing this, how would you describe the challenges and rewards to a first-timer? If doughnuts are not your style, what other steps might you take to “welcome the other side” into “one big tent of conversation”? What questions does this article raise for you? If the writer of this editorial were here, what question would you ask him or her to deepen your understanding of his or her views?
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