WHEN

Sunday, May 16, 2021, 3:OOPM to 4:30PM EDT

WHERE

This is an online event.
Hosted by Vimeo Livestream

THANK YOU TO OUR GENEROUS SPONSORS

CPTV SPONSORS
Clearview Energy
Glenmede

DIAMOND PLUS SPONSOR
Glenmede

PLATINUM SPONSORS
Mayflower Inn & Spa
Nuvance Health

GOLD SPONSORS
Drakeley Pool Company, LLC
Litchfield Distillery
The Matthews Group

SILVER SPONSORS
Kevin L. Dumas CPA, LLC
Regional Hospice
Trevenen & Coploff, LLC

THIS PROGRAM IS MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY:

GRANTS FROM
ForGood Fund
One Project

UNDERWRITERS

SHOWRUNNERS
ForGood Fund
Jane Whitney

HEADLINERS
Leni & Peter May
Anonymous

PRODUCERS
Anne Sutherland Fuchs
Ann Lozman

ANGELS
Dr. Pat Allen & Douglas McIntyre, Jody & John Arnhold, Julie & Bob Bailey, Sande Breakstone & Ron Garfunkel, Lisa Coleman, Linda & Bernard Dishy, Andrea Flink, Sarah E. Gager, Gloria & Martin Greenstein, Susan & Murray Haber, Paul Healy & Didier Malaquin, Judy Jackson & Bruce Haims, Barbara & Gene Kohn, Ellen McCourt, Ellen Breslow Newhouse, Kirsten Peckerman, Rod Pleasants & Steve Godwin, Barbara Paul Robinson & Charles Raskob Robinson, Ellen & John Stiteler, Judy & Bob Wallach, Cynthia & Stephen Warshaw

DIRECTORS
Barbara Bartlett, Deborah Benson & Frederic Marx, Susie Birnbaum, Cynthia & Richard Blumenthal, Pam & Dick Cantor, Laura Dambier, Abbey Darer & Tom Rosenwald, Karen & Robert Dinerstein, Philippa Durrant, Margery Feldberg & Jeremy Levin, Cynthia Friedman, Valerie Friedman,  Merle & Barry Ginsburg, Toni Goodale, Kate Medina Guthart & Leo Guthart, Jane & Bill Havemeyer, Judith Heller, Susan Hirschhorn & Arthur Klebanoff, Susan & Steven Levkoff, Kate Linker & Bernard Tschumi, Susan McCone & Robert Wessely, Audrey Heffernan Meyer & Danny Meyer, Adriana & Robert Mnuchin, Susan Monserud & Ric Sonder, Jack Rosenberg & John Michael Murphy, Kathleen Peratis, Patricia Dugan Perlmuth, Ene Riisna & Jim Greenfield, Laura & Peter Rothschild, Stephen Gass & Howard Sacarob, Mary Schinke, Betsey & Arthur Selkowitz, Alan Shayne & Norman Sunshine, Glynn & Mark Snow, Jean Solomon & Tyler Smith, Patricia Brown Specter, Donna & Malcolm Wattman, Kathy Wenning & Michael Dennis, Marguerite Whitney, Anonymous

TO SUPPORT CONVERSATIONS ON THE GREEN

Contact

Conversations On the Green
info@conversationsonthegreen.com

I can't Make It

Season Passes are still available for purchase when you register. 

If the winning message of President Joe Biden’s Phoenix-like presidential campaign could be shortened into a single animating phrase, it would be the cliché that “there’s more that unites us than divides us.”

And yet our country’s politics remains paralyzed by bitter and bilious partisanship that mutes almost all cooperation across the political divide, creating what amounts to a tribal war that brooks no compromise. 

The political chasm runs so deep that it causes incapacitating stasis even when battling the worst pandemic in a century, a national crisis that crosses ideological tribes and that traditionally would unite Americans in common cause.

And yet every Republican in the House and Senate voted no on the president’s covid relief bill even though polls showed that their constituents were saying yes - overwhelmingly. The jarring disconnect is a testament to recent studies that showed most Americans’ voices are rarely heard above the fray from the strident partisan flanks, composed of roughly a third of the electorate. Two thirds believe that the country has more in common than that which divides it. They consider, the polls found, that compromise is necessary in politics, as in other parts of life, and want to see the country come together and solve its problems.

But is it possible? Can President Nixon’s reshuffled ‘silent majority’ be heard? 

Common Ground’s second show of the season will focus on whether longing for common ground is nothing more than the vestigial dream of bygone era – or if the country can recapture the unity of spirit and purpose that has written America’s history in overcoming previous crises. The panelists, leading voices from across a broad swath of the political spectrum, will talk about the formidable forces empowering the fringes and why the majority of Americans are relegated to the political sidelines to bemoan their diminishing influence.  

The panel is headlined by Frank Luntz, who put art into the art of politics and often is considered the man who has done more than anyone to create the tribalism that currently characterizes the country’s discourse. Luntz earned that reputation during the 30 years he worked as the GOP’s top political pollster and wordsmith, engineering powerful phrases to subtly sway voters’ feelings on key issues.

Margaret Hoover is a Republican strategist, author, commentator, and TV host whose professional and personal lives illustrate that unity may be lived as well as sought. She has been called “a fresh and brilliant young voice in the Republican party,” while her marriage with historian and independent commentor John Avlon has been called a "lesson in overcoming the orthodoxies that divide us." 

Eddie S. Glaude Jr., is a bestselling author, scholar, intellectual, and the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Princeton University, where he is also the Chair of the Center for African American Studies and the Chair of the Department of African American Studies. He appears regularly in the media, particularly as a Time columnist and MSNBC contributor.

The final panelist is David Brooks, an op-ed columnist for The New York Times, who celebrates the power of every individual American to contribute to the healing of democracy’s fractures. A journalist, Yale University professor and best-selling author, his bi-weekly column has in recent years shifted its focus.from politics with a conservative bent to culture and social sciences, especially sociology. 

By Julia Rosenberg

Moderated by former NBC correspondent and national talk show host Jane Whitney, this interactive conversation, which begins at 3PM EDT on May 16th and runs 90 minutes, will be live streamed, allowing anyone with an internet-connected device to participate and ask questions. 

$25 REGISTRATION FEE

**Sponsors and Season Pass Holders DO NOT need to register**

Season Passes are still available for purchase when you register. 

ALL PROCEEDS FROM THIS EVENT BENEFIT: 

  • American Nurses Foundation Coronavirus Response Fund: addressing emerging needs of nurses on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response.
  • Greenwoods Counseling & Referrals, Inc.: helping members of the Litchfield County Community and beyond find access to compassionate and high-quality mental health and related care.
  • New Milford Hospital: helping to secure the latest technology, attract the best medical staff and provide the compassionate, patient-centered care for which they are nationally recognized.
  • Susan B. Anthony Project: promoting safety, healing, and growth for all survivors of domestic and sexual abuse and advocates for the autonomy of women and the end of interpersonal violence.

Clearview Energy and Glenmede are proud to sponsor the virtual events and Connecticut Public Television broadcasts of Conversations On the Green.